Shenzhen, China- Dinner at the Sun Hoong Kiong Restaurant.中国深圳-在新鸿强海鲜酒楼享用晚餐

Shenzhen, China- Dinner at the Sun Hoong Kiong Restaurant.中国深圳-在新鸿强海鲜酒楼享用晚餐

( 13th February 2013 )

Immediately after lunch, the coach transported us to the Hong Kong - Shenzhen border. All of us had to get down from the bus to clear the immigration on foot with luggage in-tow. The crowd of people wanting to cross the border was massive. First we had to clear the Hong Kong immigration and then we proceeded to enter China via Shenzhen. Once again, we joined the long queue of people to clear China's immigration.

It was a great experience watching the crowd, how they interacted and behaved, how tempers flared when some impatient people jumped queue. We watched in awe and fascination as two Chinese women quarrelled heatedly and very loudly over something which I perceived to be  trivial and which was a result of an unintentional accident. 

It took us 3 hours to clear both immigration, by which time we were exhausted. From the depot we had to trudge quite a distance to the waiting bus which was parked some distance away. We met up with the tour guide, Yip from Zhuhai, China. Yip would be our guide for the rest of the tour until we reached Macau. The first destination in the itinerary was a visit to a tea merchant. This was actually a blessing in disguise for us to sample various types of teas while we rested our tired feet. 

After sampling the teas we resume our journey by coach for another hour before reaching the place where our dinner had been booked in advance.

 The building where the restaurant is housed.

 The Sun Hoong Kiong restaurant

 A big pot of lotus soup.

 Roast duck

 Spicy stir-fried long bean.

 Clay-pot egg plant

 Deep-fried tofu with special sauce.

 Scrambled eggs with tomatoes.

 Stewed duck with winter melon.

 Grilled pigeon.

 Deep-fried fish

Stir-fried Chinese cabbage

I rated the food six out of ten points. By now our travel mates were complaining about the food, of having almost the same dishes at every meal and about having more vegetables than meat dishes. This grievance was promptly conveyed to Yip, the tour guide.


By now, all of us were very tired. After a 15 minutes coach ride, we reached Starshine Hotel  where we retired for the night.

 The entrance to the Starshine Hotel

The toilet is spacious

 Entrance to our room for the night

The rooms are spacious

Shenzhen is a well-planned city. The shops and buildings in the commercial area look very new, clean and organised. Yip, the tour guide told us that their City hall decided to demolish all the old buildings and rebuilt the whole city. As the coach took us through the city, I observed that all the shops and buildings were brightly lit and beautifully decorated for the Chinese New Year season. Tall buildings were lit with flashing neon lights. Shops selling branded shoes, bags, clothes, watches and sports equipment can be seen everywhere and the shops and outlets seemed to be doing brisk sales with people thronging the shops and malls. 

The whole city seems alive and vibrating with positive qi.