Shenzhen in one day with Dapeng Fortress visit

In the 17th Century, the Emperor KangXi waged war with the Ming Loyalists in Taiwan and de-populated the coastline. This resulted in Shenzhen being populated by a lot of Hakka so that they made up half the city. Relations between the Hakka and Cantonese became strained and in the 19th Century alone half-a-million people lost their lives in the struggle. As a result, the Hakkas fortified their settlements. The largest rectangular “Wie” fort can be found at Crane Lake in Longgang District and it now serves a more peaceful purpose as a museum of Hakka Culture.

Dafen is a suburb of Buji, Longgang, Shenzhen in Guangdong province, China. The area is an artist village for the production of replicas of masterworks and outsourcing of original art creation. In the early 1990s a group of about twenty artists under the leadership of the painter and businessman Huang Jiang took up residence in this town. They specialised in the making of large numbers of replicas of oil paintings by masters such as Van Gogh, Dalí, Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt and Warhol. These replicas were sold in many countries for relatively low prices. The endeavor was quite successful and the demand for replicas increased. In order to fulfill the demand more and more artists took up residence and started to make a living, the estimate (2006) being in the thousands. The village is a gated development, recognizable by the large sculpture of a hand holding a paintbrush outside its gates.

Dapeng Fortress is located in the middle of Dapeng Peninsula in east Shenzhen. First built in the 27th year of Hongwu reign of the Ming dynasty (1394), it has a history of over 600 years. When it was set up in the Ming dynasty to resist Japanese pirates, its full name was the Dapeng Fortress of 1,000 Households, and it had played an important role in China's fight against Japanese pirates and British colonial invaders in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Standing 6 meters tall and extending 1,200 meters, the Fortress covers an area of about 100,000 sq meters, and its walls are of granite and bluestone bricks. Dappeng Fortress is extremely well preserved. While walking around it you will sometimes feel as if you have traveled back to Ming dynasty, surrounded by these intact ancient styled buildings. The inhabitants, though, will bring you back to reality. Yes, there are people living in this ancient town, isn’t it amazing?

Dongmen is a subdistrict within Luohu District of Shenzhen, in China. It is a shopping district located on Dongmen Pedestrian Street. As one of the older parts of Shenzhen, the Dongmen area was established about 300 years ago as the centre of the Shenzhen Market, the town which would later lend its name to the city. This leads it to be alternatively known as "Laojie" (lit. "Old Street"). "Dongmen" usually refers to more than just "Dongmen Road", encompassing the entire series of connecting commercial streets. These streets were pedestrianised in 1999. The first McDonald's in Mainland China opened in Dongmen in October 1990. There are brass plaques in front of the restaurant commemorating this and a number of other "firsts," such as the first touch screen for ordering.

Shenzhen is adjacent to Hong Kong on the Mainland China border. It has flourished in this favorable location and become the Mainland's 'coolest city'. Just 30 years ago, Shenzhen was a small seaside town. Now it's one of China's biggest and most important cities. Suddenly, the opening of the new bullet train to Hong Kong in 2018 has made Shenzhen a much more popular place for tourists. Now tourists can reach Shenzhen from downtown Kowloon in about 19 minutes. The city has been named one of China's most livable cities and one of the world's 25 top high tech development cities. The list of top 10 cities to visit in 2019 ranks Shenzhen as second in the world! Tourists recognize Shenzhen as one of the best tourist destinations in the world.