Shenzhen - Hidden Life
Children’s Place, Shenzhen.
I’ve never been much of a city person; I still don’t think I am. Nevertheless, a city is where I’ve called home for the past six years. And while there are certainly times I long for a forest, a countryside, a quiet mountain, and anything away from civilisation, Shenzhen weirdly does quite well at providing small pockets of respite away from the bustling roads, noisy horns, and glistening glass and metal towers. It still seems strange to me that this one place holds the 4th tallest building in the world, has been dubbed ‘China’s own Silicon Valley’ and at the same time hosts mountains, lakes, parks, a seaside, and wildlife. In fact, it has almost anything you can imagine. If there was a city for anyone, even us non-city people, then Shenzhen is probably what it would look like.
Still, despite this city having everything you could imagine, it’s only in the past two years since picking up a camera that I’ve truly started to discover what is hidden under its shiny hypermodern exterior. Something about looking through a lens has opened my eyes to the details around the city, and I’m starting to see the world that is right in front of our eyes, but we miss every single day.
When your eyes first fall on Shenzhen, you can’t help but be struck by the towers of glass and metal reaching into the sky. Only recently, the title of the world’s 4th tallest building has been added to the ever-growing number of sky-scraping structures infiltrating the city’s skyline. Just look into the distance from wherever you are, and the horizon resembles towering blocks that have fallen into place like someone stacking pieces in a giant game of Tetris. Day-by-day buildings go up, and others come down ready for newer ones to take their place and in the midst of this you would certainly be forgiven for thinking that wildlife got the message to move out years ago. Pleasantly though, oases exist, and in them, some wildness remains.
The Tanglang Mountain range stands out as one of these islands of green carving a natural whole in the middle of the concrete jungle and splitting the northern half of the city from that of the south. Providing many hiking trails and fantastic 360-degree views for us, this haven simultaneously offers a home to a great deal of wildlife as well. Reptiles, insects, birds, and other species including the elusive Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta), one of Shenzhen’s few mammals, inhabit this mountainous area at the heart of Shenzhen. Along with this, Yangtai Mountain to the northwest and Wutong Mountain situated to the south of Shenzhen and stretching towards its western edge play significant roles in providing other green spaces among the metropolis. Vast areas that hold considerable importance for Shenzhen’s wildlife, they are home to the waterfalls, the natural streams, and a diversity of plants and trees. These, along with other rich elements, help keep wildlife alive and thriving in a place so overrun with human noise. Perhaps most importantly, they offer significant space for the wildlife to roam and explore across many thousands of hectares, unlike other more restricting areas of the city that don’t provide such levels of interconnectedness.
Aside from the mountains overwhelming benefits, Shenzhen’s second quality is water. It’s everywhere! Massive reservoirs dotted around the city pool freshwater, some of which connect to rivers that run through parks and other areas accessible to wildlife. Linking Shenzhen’s greenways, the reservoirs and rivers assist wildlife further. Perhaps, the most prominent one here being the recently ‘refurbished’ Dasha river. Connecting the Xili reservoir to Shenzhen bay in the south and stretching over 8km, the shallow waters are home to fish, turtles, and other amphibians, which in turn bring kingfishers, egrets, and herons to hunt. The bushes, flowers, and trees bordering the river keep it slightly removed from the pedestrian walkways and cycle paths that run its length, doubling as a means of separation between people and the river itself, as well as being homes for insects, reptiles, amphibians, and many more birds. When the rains hit Shenzhen throughout late spring and early summer, more rivers flow from the mountaintops out to hundreds of different areas around the city.These streams then connect more spaces, bridging gaps between parks and filling streams and ponds that tend to dry up over autumn and winter when rainfall is pretty low. This liquid lifeline rebuilds and connects the paths that crucially allow nature to meet and interact in as a diverse a way as possible.
This maze of water finally brings us down to Shenzhen’s parks. Holding over 30 major parks and many smaller ones, these spaces truly offer some amazing homes for wildlife. Since picking up a camera, I’ve primarily taken an interest in nature photography, and a lot of that has come in the form of photographing Shenzhen’s bird species. An abundance of these animals, and their comparative easiness to find when compared with other species, means I return home with hundreds of bird pictures to sort through on any given weekend. Many of these images come from Shenzhen’s parks and scenic areas and are only possible because of the space set aside for the thousands of plants, flowers, and trees that live in them and provide habitats for the wildlife. The significance of these areas is something that hit me only recently. Growing up in the UK, I guess I’ve been under the impression that any ‘exotic’ species must be a 3-day hike away, up a mountain, through waterfalls and safely away from as much human interaction as possible. Thankfully, as Shenzhen is proving, this is not the case. But it was something I definitely still thought when I first heard the mention of Fork-tailed Sunbirds (Aethopyga christinae) in a local park. How could these small exotic birds just be in a park? And not just that, in one of the busiest parts of the city. To my pleasant surprise, they were, and there were many of them. This wasn’t a one-off, rouge sunbird toying with the birdwatchers and nature photographers. They’re situated there, and I’ve seen them every time I’ve visited without fail. So, although we might just imagine parks being home to the local pigeons and the odd squirrel, they’ve got a lot more hiding in them if you know where to look.
And fortunately, that’s all you have to do to uncover these secrets. Slow down, take your time, and just look around. Nature is everywhere. You might not see it or realise it yet, but it is. This monumental megacity, Shenzhen, is proof that even hugely populated places are teeming with wildlife. But while this is great to discover, what we have currently isn’t enough. We need to continue the merging of city and wild. So, get out, open your eyes to the world around you, discover the secrets you’ve missed right in front of your eyes, and most importantly, find a way to keep them thriving.
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