Attractions

The tallest building in Shenzhen, and the one paid view in the city I would still queue for on a clear day. Price and hours both change — check the official channel on the day rather than any figure you have read, mine included, and book through it rather than a reseller.

The Bao’an waterfront: lawns, a canal, restaurants and the Bay Glory ferris wheel. Cabin tiers, prices and hours change — read the current listing before queueing. The evening light-and-water show runs to a schedule, and not in bad weather.

A plaza built around the Minghua, a French-built liner beached here in the 1980s and kept rather than scrapped. On a Friday night it is western Shenzhen’s village green; go on a Tuesday if you want to hear yourself think. The Shekou restaurants page has the eating.

Come to Qianhai for the last hour of light and stay while the towers switch on; after rain, when the haze drops, it is one of the better skyline views in the city. Blocks are enormous and shade is scarce.

The best free view in Futian, and where I take visitors before anything ticketed: twenty minutes of gentle climbing to a bronze Deng Xiaoping and the central axis laid out below. Go at dusk.

Shenzhen’s oldest tourist set-piece and comfortably its most dated. I still send first-time visitors with children, because it is easy to reach and easy to leave. Splendid China and OCT Harbour are the same proposition — check what is open first.

The one that still works for children, and the only park in the cluster I would give a whole day. At weekends the queues are the experience.

Yes, Shenzhen has a proper indoor ski centre: five slopes, lessons for ski and snowboard, and snow play for children who do not need a black run before lunch. Use the skiing guide and lesson calculator, then confirm your date in the Huafa Snow mini-program.

A restored walled settlement that predates Shenzhen by centuries, and the right antidote after a week of glass towers. It is a restoration rather than a ruin — expect a lived-in lane of small shops and coffee.

The Fumihiko Maki building on the Shekou waterfront, open since the end of 2017: design and photography shows, a good bookshop and café, and a roof terrace with one of the better free views in the city. Between exhibitions half the galleries close.