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I'm not really that fond of writing blogs, but I thought it might be pretty helpful in this case, so...
A couple of my friends and I have decided to go to Shenzhen and Hong Kong for a few days around New Year's this year. We have nothing really in mind other than seeing a bit of the cities and having a good time. I know there are multiple threads here offering advice for Hong Kong, however I had a few other questions I was hoping others might be willing to help with.
First of all, we plan to leave either on the night of the 28th or the 29th and arrive in Shenzhen the following morning. We definitely want to spend New Year's Eve and maybe a good bit of the following day in Hong Kong, after which we will return to Shenzhen for a day or two before returning to Changsha on Sunday morning or evening. So all in all, we plan to spend around 4-5 days in the two cities, however staying longer is possible if there's a good reason for it.
My main issues of concern are: 1) things to do in Shenzhen, 2) finding halal food in both Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and 3) finding something really cool to do in Hong Kong on New Year's Eve.
1) I'm not sure how familiar anyone here is with Shenzhen, but I was hoping someone might have had some experiences there or know enough about it to recommend some cool things to do. Touristy things are definitely ok and encouraged.
2) One of my friends is Muslim, and he is very particular with the food that he eats. It HAS to be halal, or at least he has to be convinced that it is. I'm a bit concerned with how easy it might be to find halal food in those two cities and I really don't want to have to waste valuable time searching the city for a Muslim restaurant. So, I was wondering if anyone knew much about this sort of thing or even had any restaurants in particular to recommend?
3) I think this is pretty self-explanatory... We just want to have a good time on New Year's Eve. Again, one friend is Muslim and therefore doesn't drink, so it would be great if we could find something to do that doesn't require alcohol to be enjoyable, but no one else has a problem with drinking so having the option to drink would be great as well. Also, despite my friend being Muslim and being very picky regarding food and alcohol, having cute and scantily clad women around is highly encouraged on his part, so that's not an issue whatsoever. Anyway, I'm sure Hong Kong has a ton of cool things to do on a night like this, so would any locals care to shed some light on this? 
Aside from those issues, really anything that anyone wants to recommend would be appreciated. Tourist attractions, stores, restaurants... ESPECIALLY good food (I know Hong Kong's famous for this )... anything at all, for either city, would be appreciated. Even scheduling a TL meetup would be cool, although none of my friends visit here.
Also, if anyone has any recommendations for hotels in either city... that would also be greatly appreciated. It's most likely going to be 3 people in one room so the price isn't that big of an issue but we'd like to keep it around or under 375 RMB a night if possible (but we can be flexible).
Oh, and just in case this information might be useful, we're a group consisting of an American, a Brazilian, and an Egyptian. We can all speak English fluently, two of us can speak and understand Mandarin fairly well, and I know a very, very little bit of Cantonese (not enough to communicate well but enough to recognize a few words here and there).
Ok, that's about it I think... Again, any information at all would be really appreciated, and if anyone wants to meet up that would be pretty cool too. I already saw one post in General about a Swedish guy that will be in HK for New Year's as well, could be a good opportunity to arrange something fun.
Thanks guys
EDIT: Oh and by the way, visas are not an issue whatsoever. We all hold residence permits in China and no visa is required for us to enter Hong Kong, so we can pass through both freely.
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I was in Shenzhen for 2 days on a stop over to Hainan (Chinese's hawaii -_-)
what you should keep in mind is that shenzhen is a boring and new city. it is practically a fishing village build into a modern city because it is close to hongkong.
don't buy shit there, you can find better deals and more choices in hongkong.
allots of companies open their offices there and they are alots of technologies parks there (which really is a giant intellectual factory if you think of it)
the city is relatively new so the streets are rather well planned instead of the chaotic nature of older Chinese cities however they are no historic sites to see (you probably don't need that),
I went to some world theme park which has miniature eiffel towers, european palaces and shits but really it's a man made attraction designed to fill the cultural void.
you can go near the beach and watch the hongkong skylines from shenzhen but again it's not that great.
from memory, the only good thing about shenzhen is the airport with their awesome macdonalds. lol
apparently night clubbing and bitches are plenty over there but I don't know how you can enjoy yourself without ordering drinks.
as for halal food that should be easy. Any Chinese cities have a sizable Hui and Uighur population who serve halal noodles etc... I don't think you will have a problem there.
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Some of the areas are very very ghetto. Remember that Shenzhen is a migrant city and crime rate is probably rank the highest in China.
So my advice is watch your wallets.
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off the top of my head..
hk: lan kwai fong has a lot of bars and i'm pretty sure there would be stuff going on during new years eve. their disneyland (really small) might have some sort of a countdown thing...might even have fireworks and stuff but i would have to look into that...and there's also a countdown at times square...the ocean park also has an event for new years i believe.
sz: citic plaza has quite a few bars open at night and there's usually a lot of people their during new years. same with cocopark...as for the touristy things, happy valley maybe? and then there's a whole bunch of other stuff around happy valley that you might be interested in
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On December 02 2009 19:34 haduken wrote:
apparently night clubbing and bitches are plenty over there but I don't know how you can enjoy yourself without ordering drinks.
as for halal food that should be easy. Any Chinese cities have a sizable Hui and Uighur population who serve halal noodles etc... I don't think you will have a problem there.
Well drinking is alright, it's just that I'd feel really bad for my Muslim friend if there wasn't some other way for him to entertain himself while we were drinking. Like going to a bar with the sole purpose of drinking is probably a bad idea, but going to a club with hot women would keep him pretty satisfied I think. Really as long as there's women, I think he'll be pretty happy.
And yeah, I figured big cities like Shenzhen and Hong Kong would have halal food, but I'm not really sure how to find it, and the only guy in the group who really knows anything about halal food can't speak Chinese at all. I know in Changsha we've had some really painful experiences trying to find food out in the city because my friends that are Muslims don't trust any food that they haven't personally witnessed being prepared or have been told is alright to eat by other Muslims. So they refuse to eat at most restaurants even though they're probably ok to eat at, just to be safe. So I was curious how easy it is to find reputable Muslim restaurants in those cities if you're just walking along the street, simply because unless my friend can be 100% sure that what he's eating is halal, it's not happening. Now that you mention it though, those are both bigger cities than Changsha so at the very least it should be easier than it is here. We'll make sure to check out some restaurants online and confirm that they're ok before we go.
Thanks for the help so far guys.
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hong kong: great city or greatest city?
sorry im biased, lived in hk for 11 years =D
talk to alffla he should be in HK around then.
hm halal food I'm not so sure about. hk isn't the best place to have funny eating habits but there are for sure places that serve halal food.
talk to alffla =D
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On December 02 2009 20:01 Orlandu wrote:Show nested quote +On December 02 2009 19:34 haduken wrote:
apparently night clubbing and bitches are plenty over there but I don't know how you can enjoy yourself without ordering drinks.
as for halal food that should be easy. Any Chinese cities have a sizable Hui and Uighur population who serve halal noodles etc... I don't think you will have a problem there. Well drinking is alright, it's just that I'd feel really bad for my Muslim friend if there wasn't some other way for him to entertain himself while we were drinking. Like going to a bar with the sole purpose of drinking is probably a bad idea, but going to a club with hot women would keep him pretty satisfied I think. Really as long as there's women, I think he'll be pretty happy. And yeah, I figured big cities like Shenzhen and Hong Kong would have halal food, but I'm not really sure how to find it, and the only guy in the group who really knows anything about halal food can't speak Chinese at all. I know in Changsha we've had some really painful experiences trying to find food out in the city because my friends that are Muslims don't trust any food that they haven't personally witnessed being prepared or have been told is alright to eat by other Muslims. So they refuse to eat at most restaurants even though they're probably ok to eat at, just to be safe. So I was curious how easy it is to find reputable Muslim restaurants in those cities if you're just walking along the street, simply because unless my friend can be 100% sure that what he's eating is halal, it's not happening. Now that you mention it though, those are both bigger cities than Changsha so at the very least it should be easier than it is here. We'll make sure to check out some restaurants online and confirm that they're ok before we go. Thanks for the help so far guys.
I'm definately not an expert on this but Muslim restaurants are easy to spot. The people there wear white top hats and look different (in Uighur's case, they actually look white -_-).
I don't think you can find any large restaurants with halal food. I mean to most Chinese, halal means no pork -_- so yeah I don't know. China is not exactly where you want to be if you are picky about food (no offense).
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What you can do is go to a Muslim shop and ask for halal food. That's the best thing I can come up with.
Also remember that coastal cities like Shenzhen have a very large and sizable foreign population so I wouldn't be surprised if there are shops opened by middle eastern guys.
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halal in Chinese = 清真
I did a quick baidu and there seems to be plenty so yeah I'm sure you can find some but your friend might not hold them to his standard.
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China3334 Posts
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No advise on where to go, since I've never been to China, but hopefully you take lots of pictures and post them when you get back. Have fun
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On December 02 2009 20:17 haduken wrote:
I mean to most Chinese, halal means no pork -_- so yeah I don't know. China is not exactly where you want to be if you are picky about food (no offense).
That's what I thought too, but oh was I wrong =P There's apparently a whoooole process to how the food has to be prepared and how the animals have to be killed for it to be ok to be eaten, at least by the Muslims that I know. I agree 100%, China is NOT the place to be if you're picky about food and in my personal opinion, the food is one of the best things about China, so not being able to appreciate that is really a shame I think.
Thanks for the advice though, it sounds like in a place like Shenzhen there shouldn't be too much of a problem. I know this sounds kinda bad too, but I've noticed that when my friend is away from other Muslims, he's more open about things (including food), so maybe he won't have as much of a problem as I fear. Either way, I'd rather be safe than sorry.
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Hong Kong20321 Posts
erhmm no idea about halal food in hk maybe i can find something out though.
new years eve i'm probably gonna book a lounge or something with all my high school friends and get piss drunk lol! i wouldn't mind if you joined, although i'd feel bad for your muslim friend(s) hahah.
if he doesnt mind scantily clad women though maybe going to a club would be better but clubbing will be a bit more $$ than just getting drunk at a all you can drink place
ill PM you my number maybe you can gimme a call when you arrive.
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Hong Kong20321 Posts
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Oh wow that should be a huge help, thanks
As far as non-halal food, anything in particular I HAVE to try while I'm there? =P I've had quite a bit of Cantonese food before, but I hear Hong Kong has some pretty special stuff.
Thanks for the offer about New Year's Eve, once I have a better idea of what's going on I'll let you know Drinking's definitely an option, I just wanna make sure my Muslim friend isn't left bored while others drink. Probably not a big deal though, he hasn't minded much in the past, especially if girls are around.
I'd give you my number but from what I understand I won't be able to use it in Hong Kong anyway. I'll definitely write yours down though and keep it with me.
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go to a big dim sum place and try all sorts of stuff. order a goon tong gao, its a huge (ginormous) dumpling inside soup, and its stuffed with all sorts of good stuff.
and also stop by a shop that sells tong siu (sugar water), its delicious
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EPT
