Just across the bor­der from Hong Kong, Shen­zhen isn’t usu­al­ly a des­ti­na­tion peo­ple con­sid­er spend­ing much time in. But if you do find your­self here and have some time to spare here are 3 Shen­zhen attrac­tions to check out, in addi­tion to any shop­ping of course.

1. Splendid China Folk Village

This used to be two sep­a­rate parks (Folk Cul­ture Vil­lage and Splen­did Chi­na) but is now one large park. “Splen­did Chi­na” a bunch of minia­tur­ized ver­sions of the main Chi­na tourist attrac­tions, includ­ing the Great Wall and Pota­la Palace. On most of the attrac­tions, there are count­less small fig­ures of eth­ni­cal­ly dressed peo­ple and there’s even a full-scale attack on the Great Wall of China.

The Folk Cul­ture Vil­lage con­tains re-cre­at­ed hous­es of the major eth­nic minor­i­ty groups around Chi­na (There are a total of 56 minori­ties in Chi­na). Each house is exquis­ite­ly dec­o­rat­ed and usu­al­ly has peo­ple dressed in the appro­pri­ate eth­nic cos­tumes. It’s a great intro­duc­tion to China’s minor­i­ty groups.

The most inter­est­ing part of this place was def­i­nite­ly the minia­tur­ized ver­sions of Chi­na. It’s sim­ply fas­ci­nat­ing. Each mon­u­ment includes a small descrip­tion in Eng­lish and some of them have audio descrip­tions in Eng­lish and Chi­nese play­ing out loud. My favorite Shen­zhen attraction.

How to get there:

Sub­way Line 1, OCT Sta­tion, Exit D

Price:

200 RMB ($31 USD) Sin­gle entry for one day (Includes var­i­ous live performances)

Tips:

I arrived mid after­noon but it wasn’t enough time to see every­thing before the big evening show starts at 7 pm (don’t miss it). I would rec­om­mend arriv­ing in the morn­ing and spend­ing most of the day there.

More infor­ma­tion

2. Window of the World

Minia­tur­ized ver­sions of mon­u­ments, like Splen­did Chi­na but for the rest of the world, focus­ing pri­mar­i­ly on Euro­pean mon­u­ments. This place is usu­al­ly busier though talk­ing to some of my friends in Shen­zhen if you have to pick one then the Splen­did Chi­na Folk Vil­lage is prob­a­bly a bet­ter option.

How to get there:

Sub­way Line 1, Win­dow of the World Sta­tion, Exit J

Price:

200 RMB ($31 USD)Single entry for one day

3. Dafen Oil Painting Village

The only free option of the three but def­i­nite­ly worth check­ing out, espe­cial­ly if you are inter­est­ed in Art. Here is a vil­lage built up around the Dafen Art Muse­um of artists paint­ing most­ly extreme­ly good dupli­cates of famous paint­ings. Appar­ent­ly, 60% of the worlds art repro­duc­tions are done here. They also paint por­traits from pho­tos and you can even paint your­self if you pos­sess some Chi­nese lan­guage skills and would like to try your hand at it. It’s nice just walk­ing around the vil­lage and watch­ing all of the artists paint in all the dif­fer­ent styles.

You can buy paint­ings by the likes of Van Gogh and Mon­et and there are var­i­ous art sup­plies shops here too.

How to get there:

1. Take Sub­way Line 3 (the blue line) to Dafen Metro Sta­tion, Exit A1
2. Walk straight down the street until you see Wal-Mart.
3. Just past Wal-Mart on the left is Dafen Oil Paint­ing Village.

Price:

Free

 

Hong Kong Attractions

Are you head­ed to Hong Kong? Check out this arti­cle on what to do in Hong Kong.

 

First Time Traveling to China?

Check out these Chi­na Trav­el Tips for your first vis­it to China.