"The Door to the West" a Shenzhen Travel Page by gaolei

I was in Shenzhen for the first time in 1993. By Chinese standards this was in the old days. Shenzhen had already developed a large glass and chrome downtown area, but that quickly disappeared as you drove a few miles toward the outskirts.

At the time, the freeways were still being built. To enter the Shenzhen Economic zone area everyone had to show their papers. This was done to keep the people from all over China from entering the city to look for work. Since I was working a mile outside the zone in Buji, I had to show a passport every day to get back to my hotel. When you take the freeway into Shenzhen, you will pass through the boundary where the guards used to stand, but it is no longer used.

While working in a telephone wire factory in Buji, I heard a loud boom and, at the same time, the windows in the meeting room blew in. Since the building was still under construction, I guessed that the staging had fallen down. When I went outside, I saw this massive mushroom cloud over the city. Ammonium nitrate and other things being stored in the city by the army explodes and leveled several blocks.

The resulting fire burned intensely for the entire day. Shenzhen called Hong Kong for help, the first such request ever. Early in the morning the next day, the fire was brought under control. It continued to burn for another day and smoldered for a week.

The announcement from city officials indicated that something had happened and there was a big fire. The Hong Kong news claimed hundreds or thousands died. The city officials claimed 7 died. They said that they only count bodies, not missing people.

Shenzhen is a huge city that is fully developed. The Shekuo district, which was an undeveloped area on the Southern end of the city is a great area for westerners to stay as you can see from the photos on subsequent pages.

The downtown section is the oldest modernized section of the city and it is where the train arrives from Hong Kong. Most visitors see this area first. Between this section and Shekuo is about 10 miles of shopping areas, apartments and palm trees lined streets. There is a waterfront park where you can look out over the bay and see the new suspension bridge to Hong Kong. Things really have changed in the past 15 years.