User talk:Mikecc46

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Help for a Big-Nose

Thanks for the welcome – even if it was auto-generated?

I started this because I was so irritated about people’s reactions when I told them that I spent about 5.9 months of the year living and working in Shenzhen. Internationally few people have heard of the city, and Hong Kong residents’ views are characterised by this quote from the current article:

“Although Shenzhen enjoys a good reputation for shopping and travel, some Hong Kong citizens are concerned about the relatively high crime rate in Shenzhen. Reports of businessmen and tourists being robbed and kidnapped in Shenzhen are not uncommon in Hong Kong newspapers.”

I am sure that citations from HK newspapers can easily be found. Anecdotally I ‘know’ that most of these robberies take place in the red-light areas of Luohu and Huanggang when Hong Kong men wander around drunk with several months’ salary (HK$3-5,000) for a restaurant captain in their pockets. Another source of robberies is when someone buys a present for his SZ girlfriend in the gold shops that have sprung up in Sheung Shui, and finds it easier to tell his wife that he was mugged than tell the truth. However, I have no sources for those. I do know that when we tell HK staff that they will be working in SZ they are often frightened. It has taken one quite sensible guy six months to take a taxi by himself.

For me SZ is a big friendly city that represents the future of China to an even greater extent than Shanghai. To understand SZ from a local perspective you have to understand the Huaqiangbei area where I live. The small piece that I wrote has been labelled “original research”, but how can I source such stuff? It is just what I see every day. Luohu Commercial City is news, but Huaqiangbei is not.

I cannot read enough Chinese to be useful, so I am reliant on the Shenzhen Daily, and the people in my office to tell me what is in the local press. Most of the data that I receive through my work is called confidential so again I cannot source it.

Another problem is that when I am in SZ I cannot access Wiki, and when I’m in UK I cannot ask my staff to research things for me.

Mikecc46 (talk) 05:35, 10 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Hi, you can read Reliable sources and/or Verifiability for citing sources. I believe that there are many sources that you can rely on. --Neo-Jay (talk) 07:58, 10 December 2007 (UTC)


 * You can use the online edition of Shenzen Daily as a source, as well as online editions of other Chinese newspapers. Maybe the city authority (mayor/Town Hall, sorry I don't know how it's called over there) has a website, you can use that too. As I understand it, I'm afraid you'll have to learn more Chinese though (and then you'll have to translate it in the article ;). Hope this help, and have a nice day. Rosenknospe (talk) 10:27, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. The online SZ Daily is difficult to use as it has no search facility and only includes about a third of what is printed. I'll do my best with that. If I could access Wiki while in China, then I could get the guys in the office to find and source stuff for me. As it is I will have to draw up a list of things I want to know about - stockmarket, port and transport maybe this time, etc - and get it researched while I'm out there and write up while in the UK.

Mikecc46 (talk) 04:05, 11 December 2007 (UTC)


 * You can use Google to search sites. When you're on Google homepage, type site:www.sznews.com.cn (or any address) and then the words you want in the search bar. For example, a search about transport would look like, "site:www.sznews.com.cn transport". I find this very useful. Cheers, Rosenknospe (talk) 13:18, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks again. It sounds quite useful. At the moment I'm trawling through the past year day by day and finding anything useful and factual - as opposed to the fireman rescues dog - human interest stories. Realistically it's going to take most of next year to get something I'm happy with. If I can remove the impression that the current sections give - that SZ is a suburb of HK where you go for cheap tarts and fake handbags or to be mugged then I'll be content. Mikecc46 (talk) 06:28, 12 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Well that sounds like a big project. Good luck with it ! Have a nice day, Rosenknospe (talk) 12:24, 12 December 2007 (UTC)