The Civic Centre's vast roof sits like a moored ship. From Lianhua Hill you see the Deng Xiaoping statue and the new towers — an old angle on a new city. At dusk Shenzhen Bay and Talent Park become a river of joggers. When the lights come on you can believe that tomorrow is a municipal product.
Technology is not an exhibition. It is daily: payments, metro, border clearance, labs that run all night. A visitor can go to a museum of reform, or just ride the metro from the density of Luohu to the openness of Qianhai.
Food here is Cantonese at a faster tempo. Morning tea still holds; Chaoshan and Hunan take their places in the night markets. Add Happy Valley or the sea at Dapeng and Shenzhen is not only glass.
