Tag Archives: shenzhen

where have all the post offices gone?

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Just a short post on the Chinese postal service, which was one of the most important infrastructures in early Shenzhen because it connected migrants in the city to their families back home. Not, however, because migrants were writing and receiving so many letters, but because the postal service remitted money back home. The postal bank allowed migrant workers–even those from remote areas–to transfer money to families who were still (especially in the 1980s and early 1990s), living under the command economy.

Today, if you visit a post office, you’re probably going to encounter an express mail station. Indeed, most don’t regularly accept packages because most people have packages collected at their place of work or at home. Instead, post offices like the comprehensive facility on Shekou Gongye #7 Rd offer a selection of services that seem either nostalgic or opportunistic. It is possible, for example, to buy stamps and send a post card there, but it is also possible to register an electric scooter there. It is also possible to buy commemorative stamps (including from the Ne Zha blockbuster) that add to collections which were started decades ago.

all that is solid…

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Originally a farmer, in Shenzhen CY worked in a kitchen at the Shangri-la Hotel in Xili and then went to eastern Huizhou to run a small, organic farm. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make a living as a farmer. Now he’s selling organic organic congee, buns, and medicinal teas. and sourcing his material through a network of “farm friends 农友.” CY’s restaurant used to be a first story apartment, which has been divided. In the other section of the house, a bike repairer lives. It’s the low rent that brought them to Yuanling. A two- or three-bedroom apartment can rent for as little as 5,000 rmb a month. He pays 3,100 for his section of the divided apartment.

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quotidian tech chez sz

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Short update on all the tech stuff I’ve encountered today. I had breakfast with friends who said that they were using AI to read and summarize books for them and that while an expert might do better, DeepSeek was faster and more accurate than a young, just hired employee. I then when to Handshake for an event. Outside Nantou Ancient City, there was a robot sweeping the path to the south gate and a police robot that could take reports and photos. My day concluded with to a virtual exhibit on Pompei. Digital impressions of recent archaeology which allowed for the discoveries to be shown to scale, without giving a sense of the texture of anything. In fact, only the souvenirs were material. So we went through a virtual exhibition and could leave with high quality tchotchkes.

Baishizhou update

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So, rumors before pictures. They say Lvgem 绿景 is bleeding. I’ve been told that the company can’t pay back the interest on its loans, let alone make a dent into the principal. Moreover, its become a problem because they are also unable to pay for the housing for the villagers who will move back 回迁 to Baishizhou, once the first buildings are complete. Nevertheless, on the ground its difficult to see any problems. The buildings are going up, and two developments–Century City and World Garden Milanju–are open for residents.

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meanwhile in shenzhen…

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So, I’m back in Shenzhen after a North Carolina interlude. What’s the first thing I did with friends? I learned how to use DeepSeek to tell my fortune. Turns out its a thing…

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following deng’s footsteps in shenzhen

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Red tourism is a thing in China, especially visiting revolutionary sites — Yan’an’s 400+ sites (which have been ranked); Shanghai’s revolutionary heritage, and; Beijing’s Red Trail. These pilgrimages tend to be excruciatingly pedagogical, but also fun because they usually mean a day off work or school to hang with friends and eat snacks. The ideological point of these tours lies in how before and after experiences structure moral sentiment. The meaning of these tours are more complicated that Mao was there and so was I! Instead, the expected experience includes visceral gratitude: When the elders 前辈 were here, life was hard. I am here, enjoying this (implied easier and better) life because they suffered.

So what does red tourism in Shenzhen look like? It means exploring the sites that Deng Xiaoping visited in 1984 and especially in 1992. And yes, this is more or less the same trek that Xi Jinping made in 2012 during his first tour outside Beijing after becoming General Secretary. Let’s make the trip!

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what’s the difference between a typhoon and reform and opening up?

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And this is not the opening to a joke, but a loose interpretation of a stanza from a new song celebrating the Shenzhen story. The stanza is:

海风在上海吹来；吹倒了蔡屋围的老房子；吹出了一堆亿万富翁；吹出了城市文明和一栋栋的高楼， which translates as: the sea breeze blew in across the seas; blew down the old houses of Caiwuwei; blew a pile of millionaires into existence; blew urban civilization and rows of high-rises into existence.

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wtf huanggang?

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These past few days we’ve been “eating melons,”–the colloquial expression for watching other people’s drama. This time, its an internecine melodrama starring the Shuiwei and Huanggang Zhuangs.

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where in shenzhen is mary ann odonnell?

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Today, I’m in an English language reader for Chinese elementary and middle school students! I’m in the People Power section along with Zou Hongtao (who came to Shenzhen in 1979 with the Corps of Civil Engineering) and Frank Wang Tao (汪滔), the founder of DJI. It’s true, China’s Foreign Language and Teaching Press is putting out a series of graded readers for young students and I’m in the Shenzhen book, City of Miracles.

The series, Reading China has already put out 19 collections of readers.
This picture of Zou Hongtao was taken by Zhou Shubin in 1984. It became one of the most famous photographs of the era.

the cultural geography of xixiang

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The number 1 subway line stops at Pingzhou (坪洲), which once upon a time was a sandbar near the coast of the Nantou Sea. The station is at the edge of Qianhai, but near the former center of restored Bao’an County. The county seat of restored Bao’an was Baocheng (Bao City)-Xixiang, with administrative functions in Bao City and commercial functions in Xixiang. Indeed, the layout of Bao City-Xixiang echoes the layout of Luohu-Shagbu, with a new town going up next to the older market town.

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