by The Planner

Created on: August 20, 2009

I have lived in Shenzhen China for almost four years now. I have never dreamed I would come to this place, but when my husband took a job as an Architect here, one benefit is, he could bring along his family. So I took the chance also to experience a new kind of environment and culture.

The first thing that caught my eye is that, the city is located in a mountainous region. My Husband and I explored one of these mountains. This one is called Nanshan Mountain, which is located in Nanshan District in Shekou, a part of Shenzhen. Unlike the mountains in our country, the Philippines, this one is much easier to climb. Stairs are made as an access for people to climb to and from the peak of it.

Shenzhen life is not that hard. Actually, the standard of living here is somewhat simple. I still eat the same kind of food I used to eat back home like rice. The commodities are affordable especially the fare. A bus ride would cost 2 RMB (about 0.30 USD) minimum and the taxis minimum flag rate is just 12. 50 RMB (about 1.80 USD).

Housing though is somewhat expensive. They have this condominium units they call apartments, the cheapest would be a studio type without furnishings and will cost you 1,500 RMB (about 219 USD) with one toilet and bath and a kitchen. Good only for a single person. If you have a family with kids a two bedroom apartment, 70 sq meter big with furnishings will cost 2,700-3,500 RMB (about 395-512 USD) and that is in Shekou area only and in a middle class neighborhood. Villas cost a fortune and is good only if the company you are working is paying for the rent. It costs around 25,000 RMB (about 3,659.25 USD) or more.

The major adjustment I have is communicating with the locals. This is the hardest part. Mandarin is like a tongue twister. People here cannot speak English (and I thought it is the universal language). There are some Chinese who can speak English, but usually they are staff of Hotelsor students studying in Universities. Most of them cannot speak nor understand English. Sometimes when I ride a taxi and tell the driver where to go, I mispronounce the Pinyin word. (Pinyin or pinyin (p n y n , -y n) n. A system for transliterating Chinese ideograms into the Roman alphabet, officially adopted by the People's Republic of China in 1979.) That makes me lost in translation and the driver would have mistaken it for something else. That is because Mandarin words have different tones and types of pronunciation. I would love to learn the language, but

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