After the best five hours of sleep ever, Cindy and I awoke ready to do something and crash at 2 PM. My dad figured we would be pretty tired so he didn’t plan much. Our schedule was to see a few very nearby sights and then relax for the rest of the day.

My dad lives just outside the city of Shenzhen. Forty years ago, Shenzhen was a small fishing village that bordered a British territory. It is now a free economic zone next to Chinese Hong Kong and has an estimated 20 million people, many of whom are migrant workers. The old fishing village culture has been eliminated from Shenzhen, and is endangered in nearby locales. My dad decided to show us some of the last remaining fishing villages near where he lives (boats shown above in foreground, humongous construction in background).

New China

The sea here has a familiar smell of ocean salinity and sewage. My dad negotiated a boat ride to take us to some of the fishing communities farther away from the city. In addition to the villages themselves, the people here practice aquaculture. Large house, stores, and restaurants float on bamboo rafts in the middle of the sea. From there, the fishermen raise fish in large aqua net cages.

Fishing village

Village from afar

Floating aquaculture site

Standing on floating aquaculture site

Bamboo rafts on which aquaculture sites float

Cindy not fitting in

We had scheduled a Skype date with my sister-in-law to figure out some work related matters, so we headed home around noon. While we Skyped, my dad prepared a seafood lunch of shrimp and fish. The rest of the day was spent working and fighting off jetlag. At night, we headed back to the oceanfront for a crab, scallop, and pi pi xia (no idea what it is in English, you can Google) dinner while immersed in the same smell from that morning. Delicious food surrounded by unpleasant scents, how very Chinese.

“Can she use chopsticks?” -Dad