Shenzhen is an amazing city of 15 million people, almost all built starting in 1980. Construction is booming on and off campus. My colleagues here say they cannot afford the apartments across the road. That sounds familiar coming from Vancouver. You can see the activity from my guest room:
The room (well suite really) has lots of space with two balconies. It is almost as big as our apartment back home.
The campus is built on a series of hills and I had not realized on my visit last year how extensive and beautiful the campus grounds are. There are trails into the hills and I followed one before dinner.
Those are lychee trees in the background. One of my hosts here, Jingzhi Li, brought some to my room after dinner. He looked after me on my last visit, a friendly and helpful guy.
There is a Communist flavour to the way certain things work here that Veronica (originally from communist Bulgaria) recognizes when I describe them to her. There is a huge exercise room in the guest house complex, but mostly empty. It has only five machines (but good ones). There is a full time attendant, and I had to make a reservation even though I was the only one there that morning (possibly the only one there all day). It will sound next like I am joking, but I am somewhat serious when I say that a communist system can deal with a transition to an AI economy better than we will in the West. Here, everyone has a societal role.
A couple last pictures to end with. Speaking of communism, I thought this notice board was catchy. I do like red. On the right you can see amongst the high rise apartments that none of us can afford a collection of shacks (I think people live there, correct me if I am wrong). Even here, an example of the inequity in living standards so close together.
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