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China Elevator Stories

Life in Shenzhen (Guangdong Province, China)

I used to live in Shenzhen from 2012 to 2014.

29/12/2024

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Ruth Silbermayr

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Life in Shenzhen (Guangdong Province, China)

I arrived at Shenzhen North Railway Station on a summer day in 2012. Shenzhen’s urban planning is terrific, and the newer districts are amazing. These areas feature tree-lined streets that help keep the roads cooler during the hot season. The city is a fantastic place to live, with numerous high-rise buildings and a thoroughly modern atmosphere.

Shenzhen is China’s fourth-largest city, and rent here is higher than in some smaller cities. I paid 3,000 CNY for a 40-square-meter apartment and about 500 CNY monthly for energy costs in 2013. During my first pregnancy, my former husband and I moved to a slightly larger apartment with 50 square meters and two bedrooms instead of one. The rent for that apartment was 3,500 CNY, with similar energy costs of around 500 CNY per month.

Both apartments were in modern high-rise buildings and of good quality. Some expats prefer living in more upscale districts, where rents can reach 6,000 CNY or more for an apartment. Cheaper apartments are available but are often less convenient or clean. My Chinese co-workers thought 3,000 CNY was expensive and said I shouldn’t have paid more than 2,500 CNY for a nice apartment in Shenzhen. However, I enjoyed my first apartment so much that I wouldn’t have traded it for a cheaper one.

“How Come Your bump Is That Big?”

This is me and my former husband during my first pregnancy on a visit to a neighboring “urban village” (城中村 chéngzhōngcūn). These are “villages” within the city. We used to live near the subway stop Daxin (大新 dàxīn) in Nanshan district. I found my first apartment before I got together with my ex-husband, and once we started dating, he either stayed at my place or I stayed at his place after work. We spent every day together from morning to evening, and I absolutely thought I knew him well enough before our wedding. A little before our wedding, he moved into my apartment. More than a decade later, things have turned into quite the horror movie, so beware—not everyone is the way they initially portray themselves to be.

Many of Shenzhen’s “urban villages” have been torn down because of bad living conditions, making space for more modern high-rise buildings.

I often visited different “urban villages” on weekends during my two years in Shenzhen. I found them fascinating, and one was downstairs just right around the corner of our high-rise compound. It featured a little temple and small houses. I could see this particular “urban village” from my balcony. The people who lived there were usually poorer than others living in the high-rise compounds, because rents were much lower due to poorer sanitary and living conditions in those apartments.

Before I moved to Shenzhen, I had heard a lot of negative stereotypes about this city. Once I visited, I was positively surprised. I wrote about negative stereotypes people had about the city in this post from 2013:

There are different choices when it comes to finding an apartment. Some expats like looking up websites targeting foreigners and finding an apartment through another expat who is living in China. This is particularly useful if you can’t speak Chinese, but a lot of the time, the apartments listed will be more expensive. Another method is living in a hotel or hostel after arrival and then hiring a property agent to help you find an apartment. This was the option I chose. I wrote about my first apartment hunt in Shenzhen, which happened over a decade ago, in the following post:

During my pregnancy with my first son, my former husband and I needed to move out of this apartment, and I shared about our experience of looking for a new flat in this post:

I had many amazing conversations with Chinese people in Shenzhen, some of which I have linked here:

Have you ever been to Shenzhen?

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