abandoned wanxia village, old shekou

this week, my good friend steve came to shenzhen. as we were walking around shekou (from seaworld toward the new pennisula housing estates/dongjiaotou/wanxia village remains), he asked if shekou had become seedier, focusing me on something i’ve noticed but not registered: the quality of life of shenzhen squatters has deteriorated. previously, many lived in the older remnants of inner city villages. however, with the rennovate the inner city villages (旧村改新) in full swing, much of that cheap, squalid, but solid with some kind of sanitation and running water housing stock is vanishing. instead, squatters are building more and more temporary housing on the fewer and fewer boundaries between the expanding city and remains of baoan county.

the erasure of impromptu vegetable gardens symbolizes the increased transience of squatter settlements. indeed, the vegetable gardens once symbolized alternative economic possibilities for those outside the formal economy. it is a dangerous world, when illegal gardens come to symbolize spaces of urban possibility for new migrants. this is, of course, most visible at seaworld, where the last of the oyster farmers are being swept away, and new generation of squatters have moved onto the garbage and landfill heaps that constitute the new coastline. two years ago, the oyster farmers not only had houseboats, on land, they had more or less permanent installations for processing oysters. today, only a few remain, and they are clearly leaving. soon.

pictures from the past three or four months.