New York Times: Shenzhen, a place to go in 2010

Published on January 14, 2010 by connie | This story has been viewed 429 times

On the latest New York Times, Shenzhen, together with Shanghai, is listed as one of the 31 cities for global traveling in 2010.

Recommending global tourist attractions for readers at the turn of the year is the usual practice of the New York Times. The official website of the New York Times yesterday recommended in its tourism page, “Shenzhen, the same as Beijing and Shanghai, is one of the wealthiest cities in China. Its rapid development could be traced back to 1979, when Deng Xiaoping selected this small fishing port as China’s special economical zone.”

Shenzhen and Shanghai are the first two cities in China that are recommended by the New York Times in recent three years. The New York Times takes Shenzhen as a thriving travel destination in this tourist page and introduces in detail several five-star hotels in Shenzhen, “affordable luxuries extended to shopping, eating, accommodation, theatre and leisure.” Dongmen, Shekou and the Horizontal Skyscraper is also recommended.

When recommending Shanghai, the newspaper thinks that the upcoming Shanghai Expo 2010 which is expected to attract up to 70 million visitors is China’s another pageant following up on Beijing’s spectacular Olympics, adding more charms to Shanghai.

“It’s a rare chance for Shenzhen being recommended by the mainstream media of the United States as traveling resort,” commented by Li Xiaogan, Secretary of Party Leadership Group of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of Shenzhen. Li thinks that being a window of the reform and opening up of China is the root cause that Shenzhen has been selected. The attention of the New York Times on Shenzhen and Shanghai means it is paying attention on China’s reform and opening up as well as the modernization construction.

Shenzhen Post Elaine Contributes to the Story.

From The New York Times

20. Shenzhen
Chances are, the iPod in your pocket was made in Shenzhen, China. But this industrial powerhouse of a city on the Pearl River Delta in the southern region of the country, is more than just a factory town of sweatshops and bad smog — and it has the high-class hotels and high rollers to prove it.

Shenzhen is one of China’s wealthiest cities, right up there with Shanghai and Beijing. Situated just a 45-minute train ride north of Hong Kong, the thriving city exemplifies China’s breakneck transformation from peasant economy to capitalist giant. Its rapid rise can be traced back to 1979, when Deng Xiaoping selected the sleepy fishing port as a special economic zone. Money, bulldozers and cheap labor poured in. Dim sum joints and illicit massage parlors gave way to gleaming shopping malls and faceless skyscrapers. A city of 14 million sprang up seemingly overnight.

So did a new travel destination. A 491-room Grand Hyatt (1881 Baoan Nan Road; www.shenzhen.grand.hyatt.com), with bay views, recently opened, joining the ranks of the Kempinski Hotel Shenzhen (Hai De San Dao, Hou Hai Bin Road; www.kempinski.com/shenzhen) and a Shangri-La (1002 Jianshe Road; www.shangri-la.com/shenzhen). Even late-night massage parlors have gone upscale and legit. The Queen Spa (Chunfeng Road; www.queenspa.cn) has sleeping pods, a theater and a juice bar — all for under $15 a night — plus massages that start at about $25.

Affordable luxuries extend to shopping and eating. The jumble of stalls at Dongmen are clogged with pirated DVDs and knock-off handbags, while there are new fashionable restaurants in Shekou, a leafy district with an expatriate flavor. Shenzhen is getting greener, too. The city recently welcomed the first LEED-certified building in southern China: the aptly named Horizontal Skyscraper, billed to be as long as the Empire State Building is tall. — Lionel Beehner

12. Shanghai
To many, the idea of a World Expo might seem like a dated, superfluous throwback from some preglobalized age. (Remember the one in Aichi, Japan? Enough said.) But tell that to the 70 million who are expected to attend Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

This is China, after all. And following up on Beijing’s spectacular Olympics, Shanghai is pulling out all the stops. From May 1 to Oct. 31, more than 200 national and other pavilions will straddle the city’s Huangpu River, turning a two-square-mile site into an architectural playground: Switzerland will be represented by a building shaped like a map of that country, complete with a rooftop chairlift, while England is in the celebrated hands of the designer Thomas Heatherwick, who is fashioning what looks like a big, hairy marshmallow. Other attention grabbers include Macao, taking the form of a walk-through bunny, and the United Arab Emirates, which hired Foster + Partners to build a “sand dune.” (By contrast, the United States pavilion might be mistaken for a suburban office park.)

In the run-up to the Expo, Shanghai seems to have taken this year’s theme, “Better City, Better Life,” to heart, spending tens of billions of dollars to upgrade the city. The riverfront Bund promenade is getting a makeover with parks and pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, while the subway is being dramatically expanded — including several new stations serving the World Expo site. — Aric Chen

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