Cool Lianhua Mountain Park, Shenzen

Before the trip, my friend introduced me to her aunt using sms. She was very kind and nice, although we didn’t know each other before. She was more than 60 years old, she lived in Indonesia before, but she decided to move to China when Indonesia government asked Chinese generation to select the nationality at 1959. She was very helpful, fortunate she still could speak Indonesian, so we could communicate well. Although she was much older than us, she was tougher and stronger than me. She arrived at our hotel in the morning around 8 or 9 o’clock when my sister was still taking a bath, because she set the alarm wrongly, it should be an hour in advance than Indonesian time, but she set an hour after Indonesian time ha..ha...


No wonder that we were frozen, although we had worn a jacket. Auntie showed us her clothes, she wore 3 layers of clothes to avoid the cold, so we imitate her behaviour. We had a fast breakfast in the hotel, auntie didn’t want to join us, she said that she’d had breakfast at home. In the lobby hotel we took a picture with her and we planned for the itinerary to go. We preferred to see scenery than only shopping, so she brought us to a garden around 15 minutes driving from our hotel. It’s called Lianhua (flower) Mountain Park, Shenzhen, in Southern China. As a city that is known for its natural beauty and captivating splendor, Shenzhen provides the traveler with some pleasant destination to breathe in the uncontaminated air of the unpolluted environment, something that is a far-reaching thought for the average human being, unless they seek solace in the idyll of rural life.

Located just at the foot of the New City Hall which in common parlance is known as the Civic Center, the Lianhua Mountain Park in the Futian District of the Prefecture of Shenzhen is an oasis of green where the visitor would love to languish in the rolling lawns, shady greens. We welcomed by a gate decorating with red paper lantern, what a nice that there was no admission fee. The government provided the garden free of charge for their people. Although it’s free, they kept maintaining it well. So many cars parked along the street in front of the garden. We saw many children run around the field, chasing each other and enjoy the fresh weather. They went with their parents and family, brought meal and snacks. Some family gathered under trees by spreading out mat for sitting on the grass or ground. It seemed that the government was still renovating part of the garden by adding new facilities for the people.

There is also a nice lake on the adjacent ground for fishing and boating, it’s so windy. You could go around by boat to enjoy the lake. When I wanted to go to the restroom, there was a very long queue, maybe because it’s Sunday, many family went out with their relatives for enjoying the holiday, so the capacity of the restroom was not enough. After accomplish the natural call he..he.., auntie brought us to climb the hill to go to the top.
It’s quite high, I was not too strong, I seldom did sport activities, so I gave up in the middle of the trip, and asked auntie and my sister continued it without me. Unfortunately auntie didn’t want to leave me alone, so we sat together on the stone, eating the fresh sweet small oranges that brought by auntie. After restoring my energy, we continued the climbing. What amazed was so many small children were practiced by their parents to climb the hills. I must be ashamed that the children and auntie could defeat me for climbing.

Finally we could reach the top of the hill for around an hour climbing. In the center of the park at the top hill, there was a bronze statue of Deng Xiaoping 106 meters high surrounding by beautiful flowers. We also could see Shenzen from top view. The trail of the Lianhua Mountain Park is a precarious walk, parts of which have been hewn out of the cliff and also includes a suspended bridge. There was also a museum, unfortunately the office was closed, so I could not buy postcards there, anyway we still could see the history and master plan of Shenzen. If you want to stay overnight, there is a small hostel run by retired soldiers who farm for a living, providing accommodation.


The next destination was shopping, but we were starving, so we should go for lunch first. Auntie brought us to a restaurant in the shopping area by taxi, unfortunately it’s closed, so we walked to the other restaurant which was still in the same area. My eyes kept looking at the attempting bags, accessories, shoes etc, during the trip to the restaurant. We had a very nice lunch in a Chinese restaurant, I don’t remember the name, but it tasted very delicious. The customers were so lots, until we had to queue for getting the seat. We had to select the food by ourselves in many counters, then they will put the name or price on the card that we had to bring anywhere. You could pay after you finish ordered all food that you want. Although we didn’t eat rice, we were so full, I don’t know the name of its food, but I like all of them, you could see it in the picture.


I didn’t remember the shopping area, but auntie said that it’s cheaper than Luohu. You could shop for handbags, apparels, shoes, electronic products, souvenirs, etc. The commodities here are cheap which were suitable for all pockets. Bargaining was the common activity of the place. I like accessories such as bracelet, necklace, pin, comb, small mirror, etc. I only selected which I wanted, then I asked auntie to bargain for us. She could get a best price that I could not imagine, it’s so cheap. My sister and I also bought some blouses and shirts for us or friends in Indonesia too. Winter clothes were very fashionable here, so we bought 3 winter clothes to be worn during the trip, and also for my sister in Jakarta. It seemed that half day was not enough. Unfortunately we had to go back to Hongkong that night, so we had to terminate the fun shopping activities to catch the train. A small noodle restaurant was our option to have a fast dinner, it’s so cheap, it cost not more than 5 RMB per portion. We rushed to go back to the hotel to take our luggages, auntie were waiting us in the taxi, than we directly went to the train station in Luohu. Luohu Commercial Centre, Shenzhen is an enclosed shopping centre in the economic heartland of China. Luohu Commercial City is known as the focal point of transgression within the political boundary of PRC. Tourists might be upset about the social situation of the city. Begging, pick pocketing, homelessness, sick, destitute, drugs and many more are found in plethora in this part of the most populated country of the world. Anyway Louhu is still heaven of shopping for pirated stuffs, so tourists kept coming to this area for shopping. Luohu Immigration Control Point is inside the mall, Auntie was kind enough, she was guiding us to fill the immigration form, and waiting us for repacking our shopping items into the luggages. It’s around 21:00, she refused when I asked her to go home by taxi, she preferred to go by public transportation. I don’t know how to thank her for accompanying us the whole day through. Thank you auntie, our trip in Shenzen wouldn’t be as fun as this if you didn’t guide us. Don’t be afraid if we visit Shenzen again, definitely we’ll contact you :-)