Note: the itinerary below started as a piece I wrote while living in Shenzhen and was expanded in 2026. The route and the personal picks are unchanged; opening hours, prices and border rules move on, so check the current details before you go.
I sometimes get asked, “what should I actually visit in Shenzhen?” It depends on what you are into and whether you are travelling with small children, but here is the short version: most readers of this site come from Western countries, so you are probably not desperate to see a fake Swiss village, a miniature Eiffel Tower or a scaled-down Manhattan. That rules out a chunk of what Shenzhen is famous for. So what is worth two days?
At a glance
- Day 1 – Dongmen street market in the morning, Huaqiangbei electronics market after lunch, dinner near Window of the World.
- Day 2 – Splendid China in the morning, Happy Valley in the afternoon and evening.
- Getting around – the metro reaches almost everything in this plan.
- Best months – October to December: dry, warm, clear. Avoid the wet, sticky heat of June to September.
Before you go
Getting in from Hong Kong
Most visitors arrive overland from Hong Kong. The classic crossing is Lo Wu / Luohu (MTR East Rail line to the end), which walks you straight into the Luohu Commercial City mall and the metro. Lok Ma Chau / Futian is the other rail crossing. If you are coming from further away, the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong high-speed rail runs from Hong Kong West Kowloon to Futian station in the centre of Shenzhen in about 15 minutes. Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport is on metro line 1 (see the airport guide).
Visa
Border rules change often. China has expanded visa-free entry and transit considerably in recent years, and the old Shenzhen “special economic zone” visa-on-arrival at Luohu was suspended some years ago. Before you travel, check your own country’s current status – visa-free stay, visa-free transit, or a visa arranged in advance – and whether a day trip from Hong Kong qualifies.
Money and the metro
You no longer need a pocket of cash. Alipay and WeChat Pay now accept foreign credit cards, and almost everything in Shenzhen – shops, restaurants, taxis, market stalls – is paid that way. Set one up before you cross the border. For the metro you can also buy single-journey tokens at the machines, or tap a bank card at many gates; a Shenzhen Tong stored-value card is worth it only for a longer stay. See the Shenzhen metro guide.
Day 1 – markets and the city
Assuming you arrive in the morning, start at Dongmen (Dong Men) in Luohu, a dense pedestrian shopping district a couple of metro stops from the Luohu border. This is where I would send anyone who wants the loud, crowded, bargaining side of Chinese shopping: cheap copies, cheap clothes, and better-quality Chinese brands if you look. Haggle hard. When you have had enough, walk a few minutes to King Glory Plaza and the malls around it for a calmer, air-conditioned contrast – there is more on those in the Shenzhen shopping malls guide.
After lunch, take the metro to Huaqiangbei, the largest electronics market in the world – floor after floor of components, phones, drones, LEDs and repair stalls. Even if you buy nothing it is a remarkable thing to walk through, and it is the clearest single snapshot of what Shenzhen actually does.
In the late afternoon head west to the Window of the World area. Eat dinner at one of the restaurants in Yitian Holiday Plaza, directly across the road – I always liked “Four Seas International House” there. If you have energy left, the bar street beside Window of the World is photogenic in the evening, and there is an indoor ice rink nearby.
Day 2 – Splendid China and Happy Valley
Start around 09:00 at Splendid China. It gives you the whole country in miniature – the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Three Gorges – on a 1:15 scale, plus the adjoining China Folk Culture Villages with life-size ethnic-minority architecture and daily performances. It is touristy, but for a first, short visit to China it is a genuinely useful overview and it is easy to reach by metro.
Around 14:00, move next door to Happy Valley, a large, well-run amusement park with serious roller coasters and, in summer, a water park. It has nothing to do with China, but it is a good afternoon, especially with older kids, and it stays open late enough that you are not rushed.
Swap something in for your interests
If markets and theme parks are not your thing, drop a day and substitute:
- Lianhuashan Park – a free hill park in Futian topped by the well-known bronze statue of Deng Xiaoping striding forward. On a clear day the walk up gives you the best free view over the Futian skyline. At the foot of the hill is the Civic Center with its wave-roofed government building, the city library and the concert hall.
- OCT-LOFT – a former factory compound in Nanshan turned into a creative district: galleries, design shops, independent coffee, and a weekend market. The relaxed, low-rise counterpoint to the rest of the city.
- Dafen Oil Painting Village – a whole neighbourhood of painters producing reproductions (and some original work) for export. Fascinating if you like art; you can watch people paint and buy a “Van Gogh” on the spot. It is out east – easiest by taxi or ride-hail.
- Shenzhen Museum (History and Folklore, in the Civic Center) – free, well presented, and the quickest way to understand how a fishing county became a city of over 17 million in forty years.
- Dameisha beach – if the weather is right and you want to do nothing, the eastern beaches are about an hour out.
- More options, with directions and my notes, are in the Shenzhen attractions guide.
If you only have one day
Do the morning of Day 1 (Dongmen and Huaqiangbei) for the city, then either Splendid China or the Civic Center and Lianhuashan for the afternoon, depending on whether you want “a taste of China” or “a view of Shenzhen”. Have dinner at Yitian Holiday Plaza and cross back.
Travelling with young children
Swap Huaqiangbei and Splendid China for a full day at Happy Valley (or, in summer, its water park), and keep the Window of the World dinner. Shenzhen is very stroller- and family-friendly: wide pavements, lifts in every metro station, and baby rooms in the malls.
Related: Shenzhen attractions and things to do · Shenzhen shopping malls · Shenzhen metro