Shenzhen Garden and Flower Exposition Center

A private museum dedicated to xiangqi (Chinese chess). It has a collection of over 50,000 xiangqi-related objects, including chess boards, chess pieces, books and art work.

This is one of China's two oldest golf courses. When it was established in 1985 it was way out in the country but now it is surrounded by skyscrapers, providing a pleasant oasis in the heart of Futian. This is where the locals prefer to play.

Hong Kong's Mai Po Marshes are one of the world's great birdwatching paradises as birds migrating from Siberia rest in the fishponds. The same birds also rest in the mangroves on Shenzhen Bay a scant two miles north of Mai Po. In the late 1990s when the Binhai Freeway was being built, there was public outrage at plans to route the road through the bird habitat of the mangroves, subsequently the road was built 200 m north and China's smallest national park was founded. The bird watching is legendary, but if you are not into birds, the park provides coconut palm shaded walks and views to die for across Shenzhen Bay. The birds are seasonal—outside of winter and early spring you may not see many.

At 600 meters, this is the fifth-tallest building in the world, the second-tallest in China, and the tallest all-office building in the world. Visitors can go up to the 541-meter-high observation deck, "Free Sky", on the 116th floor, for 360-degree views of Shenzhen, Hong Kong's New Territories, and the bay. The observation deck has little glass-floor nooks where you can see the city far down beneath your feet. Buy your tickets on the underground level of the building, watch a short presentation of the history of Shenzhen, and then take the incredibly fast (10 m/s) elevator that gets you up to the observation deck in less than a minute. Considering it's the fifth tallest building in the world, the observation deck is surprisingly not crowded, at least on ordinary weekdays.

Shenzhen Library and Concert Hall together make up another of the architectural masterpieces of the city. Architect Arata Isozaki designed the buildings with a back of almost featureless black granite and a front of brilliant folded glass. It is a must see for architecture freaks. The library has four million books.

This is Shenzhen's main and most central park, just north of central Futian district. The gardens are extremely beautiful and meticulously cared for. But to really enjoy the park, you need to be there with Shenzhen's middle classes early in the morning or on Sundays when large family groups gather to have fun. At the top of the 100-meter hill, which you can reach with a 20-minute, not too challenging walk, is a large bronze statue of Deng Xiaoping striding out over the city. Large aerobics groups operate to loud music, people fly kites and play badminton, a man walks down the path inscribing Tang Dynasty poetry in ever evaporating water with an enormous brush. Further down the mountain, ballroom dancers do the tango, a group of belly dancers wiggle, and large men lay into each other with bamboo staves and swords. A famous and totally spontaneous group of singers of revolutionary opera sings by the lotus lake every Sunday morning, a must-see if you are even remotely in the vicinity. They are just past the laughter therapy group and the marriage market.