Burger King Tiley City

The Burger King in Shenzhen has many of the classic menu items in the US with some twists. The most notable may be that Heineken is on the menu. Still a nice spot to get a taste of typical US fast food. This Burger King is next to Coastal City, one level above street level. This Burger Kin has closed as of Aug 2013, but others remain open at Coco Park, MixC, and elsewhere

Tiley City L2-6
Haide 2 Rd.
Nanshan District, Shenzhen

Brian's Favorite Menu Items: Onion Rings
Nearest Metro Stop: Keyuan on Shekou Line

Other BK locations in Shenzhen:
217, 2nd Floor
Sangde, Huanqiangbei
Shenzhen

Basement Floor/L-316
Citic Plaza
Shennan Road
Central, Shenzhen

No. 108, Basement-1,
KK Shopping Mall, KK Financial Centre
Luoho District, Shenzhen

L2C-002, 2nd Floor
Coco Park,
Futian, Shenzhen

Gypsy's Wine Bar and Restaurent

Gypsy's is located in Sea World and is run by an Australian owner. In my opinion the best all around restaurant in Shenzhen, everything on the menu is very good. For the first several months that I lived in Shenzhen I would eat at Gypsy's several times a week.

Brian's Favorite Menu Items: Australian Chicken Parmigiana; Pork Ribs with Washabi Mashed Potatoes
Nearest Metro Stop: Sea World on Shekou Line

Cruise Inn

The Cruise Inn is ideally located in the middle of Sea World (The Shekou Square) inside The Minghua (a old cruise ship landlocked) - surrounded by numerous international restaurants its a great place for visitors who want to make sure they have easy access to western food choices. I've never stayed there, but I heard from co-workers that it can be noisy from the square if there are late night activities and the rooms are small, typical of a cruise ship.

Nearest Metro Stop: Sea World on Shekou Line

X-TA-SEA Sports Bar

X-TA-SEA is a sports bar located in Sea World, inside the cruise ship in Shekou. X-TA-SEA offers a wide selection of classic American sports bar fare including chicken wings, pizzas, sandwiches with a number of beers on tap. Most major sporting events can be seen on the projection tvs in the bar. If there is a sporting event you must see, ask the staff. They can sometimes record games in the US and stream them on the tvs. The owner Bill is from Chicago and is often found hanging out at the bar each evening with his friendly dog.

Brian's Favorite Menu Items: Chicken wings, Ribeye steak sandwich with philly cheese sauce on side.
Nearest Metro Stop: Sea World on Shekou Line

Shenzhen Metro

Click on map for a larger image with Metro Stops with English Names

The Shenzhen Metro significantly expand in mid-2011 and now contains 5 metro lines with over 100 metro stops all over Shenzhen. With an English metro map it is now much easier and cheaper (than a taxi at least) to move about the city.

Mama's Mediterranean Restaurant

Mama's, located in old Shekou, other a wide variety of dishes including pizzas, classic Mediterranean fair, Lebanese, Italian, etc. While I lived in Shekou I would order a Doner kabob at least 1/week as its fairly inexpensive, but very tasty.

Brian's Favorite Menu Items:the Doner Kabob Wrap (both the beef and chicken)
Nearest Shenzhen Metro Stop: Shuiwan on Shekou Line

Minsk World

Minsk World is a tourist complex built around the old Soviet Minsk aircraft carrier. Its a reasonable attempt at creating something worth visiting, and most expats may get a good chuckle with a visit.

Entrance to Minsk World:

The actual Minsk aircraft carrier is really the only thing worth seeing in the complex. There are a few other pieces of military equipment, sovenior stores, and eateries, but their really built around the aircraft carrier.

Grounds of Minsk World:

Walking onto the Minsk Carrier:

The aircraft carrier was in a surprising state of disrepair. The aircraft on its deck had flat/dry-rotted tires. The control room appeared to have all had all the equipment pulled out with older equipment hastily placed in the room and non-functional.

Deck of the Minsk Carrier:

Minsk Carrier Control Room:

Charlies Store USA

View Larger Map

If your craving international groceries in Shenzhen, then Charlies is probably the best all around location to shop. Located at Shop 8, 1/F Bitao Center, Taizi Lu in Shekou this small shop is packed with imported foods that will probably satisfy the most homesick shopper.

We found Charlies a great place to find reasonably priced diet soda, peanut butter, chips, granola bars, soups, spaghetti sauce, pasta, cookies, peanut butter, cheeses, etc. Our groceries while living in Shenzhen mainly came from Charlies and Hong Kong grocery stores.

Here are some common baking items found in Charlies including Jiffy Baking mixes, Jello, pie crusts, etc.:

Peanut butter, jellies, and spices:

Sodas including American Diet Coke, A&W Root Beer, Mountain Dew, Dr Pepper:

Shekou Ferry

The Shekou Ferry is located at the end of Nan Hai Boulevard and the southern tip of Shekou. The ferry has regular ferry service to Hong Kong Island, Macau, Hong Kong Airport, and Zhouhai.

[insert map of shekou with ferry terminal]

[insert ferry terminal latest schedule]

Upon arrival at the Shekou Ferry terminal there you can either get a gypsy (private) driver or a regular taxi car marked with the official red/grey cab color. We would recommend not accepting rides from any gypsy driver at the ferry terminal as they're prices can be 2x to 5x what a regular taxi driver costs. You may be harassed by gypsy drivers as you make you way through the terminal exit who may even speak some broken English. We would recommend proceeding straight to the taxi stand line in front of the terminal and wait at the stand for an official taxi. Remember nearly all taxi drivers in Shenzhen cannot speak English so make sure you have a plan to communicate with them (either paper with written destination in Chinese or be prepared to speak your destination in chinese).