Three weeks to go and have hit the panic button

Having done lots of research on the forum, we thought we had planned a full day in Shenzhen. We will be a party of 4 adults and 2 children (10 and 7) so doing an organised tour from HK is out of budget. THree of the adults are well travelled. We planned to go to Windows of the World and then shop at Lowu. While we were aware of some of the scams ie pickpockets at border and on MTR and negotiating taxi prices. my husband has talked to a few people and has been put off the idea. We would travel with money pouches tucked into our trousers and get the hotel to translate the 2 places into Chinese for us.

Do we

a) cancel the planned trip.

b) go shopping only. Kids are desperate for DVDs, stickers, stationery and general kids stuff and I love looking for bargains.

c) go ahead with the whole trip. Windows of the World sounds like a good way to expose the kids to sights from around the world without the expensive airfares. How would we safely get from Lowu to WOW and back again?

Any tips or advice would be appreciated.

Three weeks to go and have hit the panic button

c. By metro, end to end.

http://www.szmc.net/10station/index.jsp

FYI, Luohu = Lowu

ShiJieZhiChuang = WoW

Three weeks to go and have hit the panic button

I have been to Shenzhen several times. I have been to WOW twice and Louhu many times. I live in Perth too. If you wish for a one on one Q %26amp; A call me after 6pm anyday 92744202. I hope I can ease your mind on most topics on your trip.

Mike

Thank you thank you thank you. Will take you up on that offer

What is the problem - thousands do this every day? The Metro is clean and safe (I feel much safer in Shenzhen than on Sydney%26#39;s grotty train system, although I haven%26#39;t been to Perth)

I don鈥檛 think you have understood the essence of the question. I have been researching what we want to do in Shenzhen for some time on the forum and some issues come up regularly. For example tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g297415-i7681-k776鈥?/a>

What the readers have described I have seen in Moscow and Tijuana. When you are travelling as two vigilant adults, it becomes part of the adventure. When you take your two children, the comfort zone changes. My husband鈥檚 co-worker told him that when he went, he saw someone getting pick pocketed and wanted to interfere but was told to stay out of it. This now has my husband worried as he knows someone who saw it.

If I go for a shopping trip into Perth, I do not have to worry about pick pocketing, a border crossing that takes time, taxi drivers, who according to some people play scams on tourists and the language spoken is my own.

If we had listened to every story we had heard, we would never have travelled to some of the amazing places we have as a childless couple. I am really keen to go to Shenzhen to see some of its attractions but need some reassurance that it will be an adventure and not a risky adventure.

My daughter is living and working in Shenzhen. She%26#39;s a small town girl but has not had any problem at all in Shenzhen. In fact, she%26#39;s never even said anything about feeling the least bit worried about traveling by herself there and going by herself to Hong Kong. My husband, teenage son and I are looking forward to visiting Shenzhen in two weeks(!) along with the rest of the great cities in China.

I had same concerns. Have sent you a message to your message box on this site. Will wait for you to reply.

I have travelled into shenzhen many times %26amp; last year took my kids (15 %26amp; 9 yr). We stayed the night near the Dongmen markets. Perfectly safe never felt threatened and the kids had a ball.

We were even at the markets after dark.

You will read a lot of scare mongering on this site if you believed some people on this site all the locals are pick pockets just queueing up to have turns at stealing your wallet.

Yes there are some crims but just use your head, in my experience the cities in China are a lot safer than here in NZ or Ozzie.

Thank you to all the people who have replied and to those I spoke to off line. We will be going to Shenzhen. We will travel with our usual awareness and our minds have been put at ease.

Hi

All I can say is go.

We travelled to Shenzhen in july 07.

My husband, myself and three teenage children(15,16%26amp;18).

We flew into Shenzhen had 4 nights there took the train to Hong Kong spent 6 nights there and then back to Shenzhen.

At no time did we ever feel unsafe on the trains or shopping.

We did windows of the world and splendid china, the children really enjoyed both of those parks.

We also shopped all over the place.

I too am in Perth so you are most welcome to give me a call if you would like a chat on 94545187

Kerry