Culture...in Shenzhen.

Last weekend, Ranajit and I decided that we needed a little bit of culture in our lives. There were several art shows and we picked the one at the Shenzhen Museum. Did you know that Shenzhen had a museum? Neither did I. I'm always up for a new adventure!! Ranajit met at the subway and walked (in circles at first) to find this magic place. We were almost convinced that our destination was a myth, but no...we found it.

Dear G-d.


I took one look at the dirty, decrepit building and said, 'I give us 20 minutes.'
We paid our 10RMB and were informed that there were 5 wonderful floors.

One would think that 5 floors would not be enough to house 5000 years of Chinese history. We made it out the door in 25 minutes. Damn, off by 5!!!

The first floor was actually quite nice. Newer paintings (the oldest dating from late 1800's)
and displayed with care. They were mostly what you find in the local tourist shops-scrolls, flowers, animals, people, etc.

The second floor was just scary...it was like a natural history museum gone horribly wrong!!
There were animals everywhere!!!!!!!!! and they all looked weird...like taxidermy (?) on crack...Disproportional heads, wild eyes, stretched fur..ug...
There was one small room like a 'forest' or the 'mammal and bird' room with every single animal they could fit in the small space...lions, deer, owls, foxes and more all snuggled next to each other, like on a Jahova's witness pamphlet. The second room was 'under the sea' and was an odd arrangement of puffer fish, leathery sharks, and crabs. The entire room smelled of stale vinegar...it was awful...I forgot my SD card or I would have shared the 'culture' of shenzhen.

the 3-5 floors were propaganda shit that I couldn't even face.

There was a cool miniature model of the city...but besides that, the exhibits were a total let down and down right frightening.

25 minutes later, Ranajit and I were strolling out the exit.