---
type: Place
title: Shenzhen
description: A fishing town of 30,000 in 1980 and a city of 17 million now — China's tech testbed, where a driverless taxi costs 2.4 yuan and your milk tea arrives by drone.
tags: [shenzhen, china, technology, driverless-cars, drones, trains, surveillance]
coordinates: {lat: 22.5446, lng: 114.0545}
timestamp: 2026-08-05T12:00:00Z
---

# Shenzhen

The city Harry calls the most advanced in the world, in southern
[China](/countries/china.md), just over the border from
[Hong Kong](/places/hong-kong.md).

The numbers are the story. **In 1980 this was a town of about 30,000 people —
the size of Harry's own town in England. By 2026 it has over 17 million.** It
was the first special economic zone under Deng Xiaoping's reforms: capitalist
controls were introduced here, foreign investment was allowed in, companies
flooded in for cheap labour, and the city followed.

Its role now is as the country's testbed. When a Chinese company has new
technology, it launches it here first — which is why a visitor sees things that
don't exist elsewhere yet.

## The technology

- **Driverless taxis.** A separate app from the usual Alipay booking, confined to
  one district while it's tested. Harry's ride cost **2.4 yuan** — around 35
  cents — for ten to fifteen minutes, because there's no driver to pay.
  - **You need a Chinese ID card to book one**, which effectively rules out
    foreigners travelling alone.
  - It won't pull up exactly where you asked, and it got stuck in the road once.
  - Harry raises the obvious question on camera — how many jobs this removes —
    and doesn't resolve it.
- **Drone food delivery**, at Shenzhen Technology Park: eight outlets including
  KFC and McDonald's, ordered on a phone and lowered to a collection point in a
  box you put back afterwards. It took about 20 minutes, which he notes is the
  least efficient milk tea he's ever had, and draws a crowd of locals looking up
  who are as interested as he is.
- **A walking exoskeleton** sold in a mall — powered legs that drive your stride
  for you. 14,000 yuan, about $2,000. Harry's assessment is that it's a gimmick
  for him and genuinely useful for the elderly or anyone with a mobility problem.

## Safety and surveillance

Cameras everywhere, and no way to be anywhere in the city without one pointing
at you — which Harry says feels odd. The British expat he's with, who has lived
here four years, rates it one of the safest places in the world and says he
never has a worry walking around. His grandparents message him about how unsafe
it must look.

Both note that Western perception of China is improving and still isn't close to
what they experience.

## Practical

- **Alipay is essential.** Western apps stop working at the border.
- **UK passports are now visa-free for mainland China.** Otherwise, 54 countries
  can use the **240-hour transit visa** with an onward ticket — see
  [use a transit visa](/tips/use-a-transit-visa.md).
- **The city is greener than expected** for its density, and full of cranes,
  which Harry uses as his measure of how fast a place is growing.

## Getting out: the Hong Kong train

One of the busiest border crossings in the world, with high-speed trains to Hong
Kong roughly every five minutes.

- **14 minutes, about £14.**
- **Book on Trip.com and use your passport as the ticket** — nothing to collect,
  scanned straight at the gate.
- Business class is 2+2 instead of 3+3 and Harry's verdict is that it isn't
  worth it over a 14-minute run, for about $5 more.
- **The network**: 45,000 km of high-speed rail, usually running at up to 350
  km/h, 95% on-time performance — and fares priced **by distance rather than by
  demand**, which he points out is the fairest possible arrangement for the
  passenger and the opposite of the British system.

## Harry's tips

- **Take a driverless taxi if you can get on the app** — cheaper than a normal
  one and unlike anything available in the West.
- **Bring a Chinese friend, or a Chinese ID.** Half the good technology here is
  gated behind one.
- **Book rail on Trip.com and travel on your passport.**
- **Skip business class** on the short hops.

## Source

- [I Went to One of the Wealthiest and Most Advanced Cities](/videos/T263hFcMBoA.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T263hFcMBoA