Bring on the Night

Since I eventually cannot remember the days from each other, my next posts will be about things I experienced in no logical order.

On one of my days alone (C. had to work), I went for a walk in the evening (20.00-21.00 I think). During my stay in Shenzhen I had slowly begun to feel more at home around the hotel area, and I was used to the people I ran into. The lady eating rice with her infant out of a trashcan, the beggar that followed you forever even though I never gave her anything and so on. Still I was a bit careful and did not wish to risk anything, so I decided to stay on the bigger streets. I headed for a big road and followed that and wanted to eventually make a turn back to the hotel on a already known street (the one with the DVD shop I visited earlier).

I rather enjoyed myself looking at the different restaurants as they had a wide selection of fish, crayfish and similar on display. Not anything we are used to in little Denmark, unless you go to a public aquarium.

Somehow I began feeling a bit uncomfortable. I don’t know why. Maybe it was the lack of lighting, or just the mood. Maybe it was the fact that there were more people, and that I had to walk closer to many of them to pass by. I am not claustrophobic, but I was new in town and all alone. I decided this was the time to find a connection to get to the road leading back to the hotel. First road in the right direction, and I walked 30m down it and decided to turn around. Along the first 30m the road got dimmer and dimmer, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was walking into something worse than what I came from. When you get this feeling, you also feel like people stare even more on you, even though it may not have been the case. This is what made me turn around again. Intuition maybe, who knows.

Back on the bigger, but also “scary” street, I walked a block further before I spotted a road that looked safer for connecting to the road back to the hotel. What I did not know was that this offered one of my more weird experiences on my stay in Shenzhen.

50m on, and the walk lasted less than 5 minutes. Even though I put on my most arrogant do-not-bother-me-face, I had no less than 5 offers for a “good time” by ladies on the hunt for a buck. One thing is the offer, but another that you basically have to out-run or zigzag your way away from some of them. Tried this a few times before with beggars, but never had a lady chase me like that before (please feel free to comment this one guys, I wouldn’t let the chance go myself).

The last offer was the worst. A young man tried his best to make me follow and look at the “goods”. Of course I declined and told him I was not interested, but he insisted leaving me no other choice but to raise my voice. Still he followed me, and in a desperate last attempt to win my interest, he shouted “beautiful girls, small girls” as if the height should make any difference.

I finally got rid of him, and was back at the hotel digesting my should-have-been nice walk around to see the city. This is when it finally hit me. This dude was not trying to sell “small girls”, but young girls! Pretty creepy, and I must admit I was a bit chocked.

This was the evening I decided that walking around alone in the evening in this neighbourhood was not a great idea. You will get used to people looking at you because you are a westerner, and get the occasional offers, but when you cannot walk 50m without being pestered and get real disgusting offers it gets under your skin. I am sure other westerners eventually get used to this, or learn small tricks that help them. For example: to stay of the more seedy spots in the city, or just stay inside. I later learned from C. that this area in the city is well known for its bad reputation.

I am pretty sure that I was really unlucky walking into such an experience, and that other neighbourhoods are great for an evening out alone. It was just not around my hotel.