Fun things to do in Shenzhen

So, after bouncing back and forth from HK to Shenzhen a few times, my GF and I stumbled on the mammoth Queen Spa. We need this in America. I'll let her do the talking as she wrote a more complete review:

Wrap your noggin around this: A spa that’s open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, takes up a city block — and sprawls over seven (yes, 7!) stories, or 480,000 square feet. You could spend days here, literally, and people do (they have designated sleeping areas, and wake-up calls). With few windows, the place has something of a casino-like atmosphere, where you can easily lose track of what hour, or day, it is.

Here’s how it works: You take the Hong Kong MTR to Lo Wu, cross the border, and enter the Lo Wu shopping center. Queen Spa has a small shopfront there, where the staff will direct you to a free shuttle bus that will transport you to the spa in about 5 minutes.

Upon entrance, you can check your large parcels with the concierge. Then proceed to the reception, where you check-in and are given a special bracelet that has an electronic chip and an account number printed on it. The entrance fee is 98 renminbi for 24 hours (but this will be waived if you spend 168 renminbi on massage or other services, and believe me, you will). [Note, 98 renminbi = 14.34 U.S. dollars, or 111.2 Hong Kong dollars. This is not a typo.]

Head to the changing room, where you’ll be outfitted with a set of pajamas and a robe. Stash your clothes and valuables in a locker, lock it with your bracelet, and you are off to explore 7 floors of entertainment, dining, spa services and more. Everything is charged to your bracelet account, and you settle your bill when you leave. The facilities seemed fairly clean, although the showers could have been cleaner.

Final thoughts: Queen Spa is a jaw-dropping place that must be experienced to be believed. While Westerners may find some aspects of it more hyper-stimulating than calming, it’s a cross-cultural experience not to be missed, and it won’t blow the budget.

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Sometimes also referred to as Dafen Oil Painting Village (大芬油画村; Dà​fèn​ Yóu​huà Cūn​) I would recommend this visit only as an insight into the current factory-style production of replica artworks and exportation of Western culture to the middle classes of China. As an artist's sanctuary or community, it has little going for it as little of the material is original. A series of galleries or shops are built into the cute arrangement of streets, brightly coloured high-rise buildings, combined with the more traditional Hakka-style housing.

In the couple of hours spent I wandered round, observing some of the artists producing replicas, found a lovely street bookshop where we sat and browsed artist's books for a long while, buying several, looking at some more crafty bits and pieces. It was a blue sky day and the brightly painted tower blocks looked wonderful in the crisp winter sun. Looking for these finer details is always rewarding when much of what is directly in front of you in China may be poor quality, noisy or confused. Some reviews mark this out as a must-see. The attractions are that you can commission your own works, from photographs or copies of paintings and you can read more about this online depending on your requirements.

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Follow the directions to the museum below, heading for the what looks like the front of the gigantic wavy top building at the Civic Centre and take the escalators to the top floor to begin where you can see captivating scenes of Shenzhen before and after the 'opening up'. In these first rooms you can view info and images of Shenzhen's induction into the stock market (1983), some brilliant displays of the lives of the migrant workers that helped to build up the city (and still are in many developing cities), and exploration of the city's close ties with Hong Kong. The video of the Sino-British handover in 1997 is on display here which for those who can't remember is a very insightful addition to the museum space and significant marker in recent colonial history. The video slows and pauses as Chris Patten sheds a tear as the Union flag is folded and returned into his arms. Very interesting indeed!

On the second floor there are excellent installations and curation dedicated to the traditional folk culture of indigenous Cantonese and Hakka populations. The dioramas here engage every sense (apart from smell) and re-imagine scenes from Asia past or novels such as 'The Good Earth'. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Earth

At ground level there is the 'thematic exhibition' room, (with current poster pictured on this page's guide), currently hosting a loaned show from Europe with miniatures of the sculptures of Rodin and Degas and paintings by Pissarro and Renoir amongst others. Surprisingly this was the busiest room of the whole museum on the day that I visited, you couldn't move for camera lenses and it was interesting to see the profound level of interest in these works by the Chinese visitors.

This museum looks massive but can be done in around an hour, depending how long you like to spend at sights like these. This is a well laid out museum. A great mix of technology, text, artifacts and visuals and I strongly recommend a visit. It's something I wasn't going to visit until at a last minute change of heart and I was extremely glad to have gone. Together with the new Shandong Provincial Museum in Jinan, Shandong Province, is the most interesting city museum I've visited.

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put a little bit of art and culture in your travel in shenzhen. drop by the shenzhen grand theatre. check out what shows are going on. when we went there, the beijing opera was performing and we had a grand time.

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go through time and the famous spots in china in just one day by going to Splendid China/China Folk Culture Village. One side is occupied by miniatures and one side features lifesize houses and real people representing China's vast ethnic minority groups.
be prepared to spend the whole day here. there are mini-shows going on throughout the day in each themed village and one grand show starting at 7PM every night.
Entrance fee is RMB120.
Check out my photos here http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2105104025

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The Hong Fa Temple is the only "real" Buddhist temple in Shenzhen according to the Temple Guy himself. It is nestled at the bottom of a mountain. And if you go on a climbing trip to Mt. Wutong, one of the trails ends up here. It sort of brings a spiritual touch to mountain climbing. Making the arduous trek and ending in a holy place is like our journey in this world, and ending in salvation or enlightenment. But I digress.
The temple is huge, with many halls dedicated to various Buddhist figures with big ones such as the Laughing Buddha and Amitabha buddha.
Incense and flowers are available at the main entrance for a small fee if you want to make an offering. The temple is overlooking the beautiful Fairy Lake.
No entrance fee to the temple but the grounds it is on - the Fairy Lake Botanical Garden - charges RMB20 to get in. Once there, a mini-bus takes you up to the temple which should cost you around RMB2 one way.

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walk through shenzhen's past via the shenzhen musem. on display are trinkets from the past, old pots and jars, old technology. there's also a room full of stuffed land and aquatic animals that's not necessarily from china.
museum is open daily except mondays from 10am to 5pm.
ticket fee is 10rmb.

bored? go to this popular shenzhen theme park and scream your lungs out with the heart pounding suspended looping coaster ride. there are other many exciting rides but this being china, and being a holiday, we only got to try this one ride because there were just too many ppl lining up.