Shenzhen Talent Park

This past week was a miserable week with regards the weather, it was overcast with a very high humidity level and temperatures grabbing onto the low 30-degree Celsius. Every night we had some rain, but not enough to cool it down - it just added to the humidity level.

On Saturday morning, when we woke up, I noticed a break in the cloud cover, with some blue sky seeping in from behind the fast moving clouds. I knew (hope) this was going to be a beautiful day.

I asked Xiaoyi where we can go for a sunset photo. She asked around on Wechat and eventually, we decided on Shenzhen Talent Park. It is one of the latest editions to the excellent set of parks in Shenzhen. It only opened in 2017 and Xiaoyi has also not been there yet. She worked out a route consisting of bus and subway travel traversing, and at 4 pm we set off for a sunset picnic in the park. I packed some peanut butter sandwiches - I baked a new bread earlier the day - and some traditional South African Rooibos tea for our picnic in the park!

It took us an hour and 20 minutes to get there. I again realised how big Shenzhen actually is. The park is next to the Shenzhen Bay Park which we visited on previous occasions.

On arrival, I realized that my photography will most likely be fixated on the very prominent China Resources Headquarters, which is a very unusual high-rising building standing 392 meters. The park is reclaimed land from the sea and is built around a "lake" that is connected to the sea on the opposite side of the China Resources Headquarters. There is a circular tartar running track all around the lake which is 2.7 km long - and while we were there, it was over utilised by the fitness-fanatic young Chinese generation.

At about 6:30 we sat down and enjoy our picnic. By then we had already photograph this prominent building from all angles around the 2.7km track and I was convinced the the high clouds will turn red after sunset, so we decided to wait for sunset with our cameras ready for that special photo. In the meantime, we phoned our good friend Lyn Williams, whose birthday was on this special day, but just as we started talking to her, the clouds started turning red, and we actually never wished her a happy birthday - sorry Lyn - Happy Birthday! Sunset was just before 7 pm. At 8 pm, the coordinated lights of all the buildings in the area started to lit up giving us a wonderful show.

(The laser light message in the water is loosely translated as "Shenzhen and its lovely people are waiting to welcome you to the Talent Park")

I was in awe, I have seen it in places like Hong Kong, but the scale of this light show is just amazing. After we packed up and left I thought that I should have taken a panorama photo to show it all - the 3x2 aspect ratio does not do it justice.

There will be a next time...

I hope you enjoy my three long exposure photos.