Morning Walk in Shenzhen

In Shenzhen, I stay in the Futian District, about an hour's Metro ride from the airport and about 10 km (6 miles) from the Shenzhen City Hall.  In the morning, I like to walk north from my hotel, around Xiangmi Lake, down Lianhua Road to Lianhuashan Park (just above the city hall) and then through the park.  Leaving the park, I walk through the city hall complex, down to the Convention Center and then back to my hotel next to the Tairan Science Park, halfway in between the Chegongmiao Metro Station and the Xiangmihu Metro Station.

In the morning, just as in Zhongshan Park in Shanghai, Lianhuashan Park is full of people starting their day with exercise, games, and socializing.  At the bottom of the hill, and again at the top, are several exercise dance groups.

Exercise dance groups in the park

At the base of the hill is a set of exercise equipment, but apparently more interesting to everyone, ping pong tables.

 Exercise equipment and ping pong in the park

Next to the ping pong tables is a plaza where, behind a colorful bush, people are practicing with their swords.

Behind the sign and bushes, sword practice

After watching the sword work for a while, I head up the hill to the top.  A lot of people are also either going up or down the steps or hiking up the road.

Taking the steps up and down or hiking up the road

At the top is the statue of Deng Xiaoping, the leader of China who created Shenzhen as a Special Economic Zone in 1980, growing it from a few thousand people at that time to the current 15 million or so.

Deng Xiaoping, overlooking downtown and the Shenzhen City Hall

 

Heading down from the plaza at the base of the statue, at the bottom of the hill, I run across some great floral displays close to the walkway to the Shenzhen City Hall, which has its own great displays (next blog posting).

 Floral sculpture at the park entrance close to city hall

And, I can't resist one more floral picture of the plantings and flowering trees that provide shade along the streets outside the park.

 Color along the streets outside the park

At the edge of the park, this being fall, the ground staff is raking leaves.  Which is pretty funny  given that it's 32ºC (almost 90ºF) and everything is blooming!  At least the humidity is down from the 90% or so I found during my last trip in August. 

 Raking the fall leaves