Think: Emily in Paris. Except it’s me, Evan.. in Shenzhen. And I basically only have one outfit.

Just a list of my first impressions:

• Shenzhen is not like other Chinese cities. It is brand new, nothing is more than 50 years old, and there seems to be a general attitude of build-new-stuff rather than repair-old-stuff, so you get some pretty beatdown looking buildings right next to brand new buildings.
  
• Shenzhen is not like other Chinese cities. This is a strange, idiosyncratic “planned economic zone.” Some would say it lacks history and therefore culture. Because it is so new, it’s tough to get used furniture, there is no “craigslist” equivalent, so when you move you end up buying all new products, which feels pretty wasteful.
  
• I live in Longgang, which is Shenzhen, but not really Shenzhen. It’s like saying Brownsville is New York City – technically true but a completely different environment. Longgang is about as far east as you can go on the #3 Subway line.
  
• Electric scooters are the way prime way to get around here. I got one on my second day here.
  
• Wine is super expensive, IPAs, cheese, fresh produce — pretty tough to find! There are no farmer’s markets or flea markets that I’ve been able to find. I may have made a tactical error in moving to a land of little cheese and wine.
  
• The exchange rate encourages one to get very proficient at dividing by 7.
  
• Longgang is something of a college town, but also too big to be a college town — I’m still trying to figure it out. I arrived right before the Chinese New Year, so nothing is quite as it normally would be, and I have very little basis for comparison.
  
• Shenzhen is super clean.
  
• Not speaking the language is essentially like not having one of your five senses. It puts you at a real disadvantage, and I’ve got an uphill battle to memorize a quorum of words/characters. Accomplishing even the smallest of chores is, necessarily, about four times as difficult/time consuming as you’d expect it to be, even when you account for Hofstadter’s law.
  
• I’ve yet to find anyone who is rude. Everyone is really patient and helpful.
  
• The Great Firewall of China is extremely real, and takes a bit of finesse to get around. From what I can gather, the vast majority of Chinese citizens do not realize there is a firewall, do not care about the internet, and have very little idea of the degree to which the government has blinkered their internet. Without a VPN, it would be essentially impossible to do academic research.
  
• CUHK Shenzhen is only 11 years old (founded 2012)! The students so far seem quite good. This is not a party school at all. For the most part, students are studying for professional, 4-year degrees, and my role is to complement their professional educations with courses in humanities, ethics, etc. I like this job.
  
• 711, McDonalds, Dairy Queen, and KFC are the foreign fast foods that reign supreme.