She came to get me right on time, and we actually had little trouble finding each other considering that my cell phone doesn't work in Mainland China. Since I've only been through Shenzhen and not around it before, I really had no idea just how large it is until I got on the MTR there. So many stations! Hong Kong is less than half the size in both land and population. Of course, while Hong Kong--as an island--simply gets more crowded, Shenzhen just expands. Long story short, Shenzhen was a city of about 300,000 people in the early 1970s, but then the Chinese government set aside Guangdong Province as a "Special Economic Zone." Therefore, the businesses in Guangdong Province were granted much more freedom than businesses elsewhere in China. Soon afterwards, migrants flocked to Guangdong Province, and Shenzhen became a boom-town. As a "new" city, Shenzhen has almost no history worth special note, but it's specialty instead has become amusement parks.
Yes, you read that correctly, amusement parks. As most of you probably know, I'm not exactly what you'd call an amusement park type of girl. After discussing our options with Suki, she recommended one very special amusement park called "Splendid China." Unlike your typical roller coasters and creepy people in full-body costumes, Splendid China is a culture and history themed park. Sound strange enough yet?
When we arrived, the place was all decked out in traditional Chinese decorations, such as parasols hanging from the trees:
Naturally, the whole place was pretty tacky, but that's what's so fun about it:
Peking Opera masks:
Suki and me looking our hot and sweaty best. It was 95 degrees Fahrenheit that day, but also very, very humid:
The park was split into two major areas: The Miniature Landmarks, and the Folk Culture Villages. First, we went to see the miniatures. Stone grottoes in Western China:
9 Dragons Wall:
One of the first miniatures was also my favorite. This is the Potala Palace in Lhasa, which is the capital city of Tibet. Y'all have no idea how much I've been wanting to visit the real one. Ah, Tibet! That trip will, unfortunately, have to wait until senior year. However, it's currently #1 on the priority list.
The real Polenta Palace is bigger, I promise!
Famous temples:
And so many carvings of Buddha:
The "Reclining Buddha," which is an extremely popular portrayal. I have to be honest, though. His posture doesn't seem very comfortable:
Our first glimpse of the mini Great Wall:
Wild Goose Pagoda from Xi'an:
And, of course, while in "Xi'an," I had to reignite the flame of my love affair with the Terracotta Warriors:
Temple of Heaven:
Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City:
This is me being Godzilla in mini-Beijing:
More of the "Great Wall:"
Bet y'all haven't heard of the "Venice of the East," right? Another high priority on my list of places to go in Mainland China includes Suzhou, which is home to several of Jiangsu Province's scenic water villages. So beautiful!
Does this look familiar at all? Long-time followers of my blog may remember that, slightly less than a year ago, I traveled to the town of Guilin in Guangxi Province. This is the mini-version of the famous scenic spot known as "Elephant Hill." Actually, I like this picture better than the ones I have of the real one (no photo-bombers):
This one is pretty cool simply because it's the home of Du Fu, my favorite Chinese poet. However, he is not the author of my favorite Chinese poem. That would be Li Bai, and the poem is Changgan Xing (here's an English translation).
The Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan Province:
Hanging out at the gift shop. Suki loves Peking Opera masks!
Next, we went to visit the Folk Culture Villages. In the Uyghur village, they had a performance of a traditional folk dance, so went went to check it out:
They pulled this poor guy from the audience and gave him the Islamic name of "Alibaba," as per audience request.
Wandering through the folk arts villages:
This was where things started getting baffling. Why oh why does "Splendid China" have a Thailand exhibit?
Well, whatever. Thailand's cool in my book, too.
Pretty soon, everything got back to normal and became Chinese again:
Miao minority classroom replica:
Splendid China was actually a lot more fun than I expected. We were both pretty worn-out by the time we left, and had dinner. Afterwards, we spent some time with Suki's parents, her older brother, his wife, and their adorable baby boy (who was unsure about me at first but warmed up quickly). Next, we came back to Suki's older sister's apartment, which was where we were sleeping. On the weekends, Suki's younger siblings like to come stay at her sister's apartment because it's bigger and they can play with Kaixin (which means "Happy") the parrot. In total, Suki's family has 9 children. What about the one child policy, you ask? Her family members are actually minorities too, belonging to the Teochew minority. Ethnic minorities in China are generally exempt from the one-child policy, as are couples in which one member belongs to a minority group. Good for them, right?
The next day, we spent a little time walking around the scenic parts of the city.
On our way, we passed another park called "Window of the World." As you can guess, it's pretty similar to Splendid China except that it contains miniatures of landmarks from all over the world. Take the Trojan Horse as an example:
Of course, we came by the entrance only.
We both had a lot of fun, and it was a great opportunity to visit with Suki. I loved getting to know her family and the city in which they live. For a city with no history, Shenzhen's still got a lot to offer.
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