Any interest in Shenzhen?
After 6 years I desperately need to go back. I can hire a bus to haul us around to some factories.
Maybe timed with a Mitch Altman hackers trip to China?
Would be lovely to go back to South Park (really, 南园) and see the new metro stop 
If I were to visit again, I would definitely want to travel with you. Seeing the districts with someone with an “in” (language, local contacts, etc.) would, I expect, be eye-opening.
While I will not be joining you (at least this year), I do hope you document the trip with many photos, and share it here!
I’d love to do another cell phone repair course. There was someone mentioned on Scottie’s discord. As always I struggle to get enough time off to do these things but I’m interested in anything that’s happening.
Was thinking it would be cool to have a build challenge of some kind but that’s tough to organise. Perhaps an ordering challenge, who can buy the craziest thing on Taobao for 100CNY.
I’m in! I’d love to see more of the factory automation markets at (IIRC) Depu and…the other one… if they’re still going!
Solid support for making it happen from U.K. Gary and Richard. Ryan(Robot-army) already into it now from Canada. Excited in retrospective and future.
That would be amazing! If I can make it on those dates, count me in. Should I buy a plane ticket and meet you in Shenzhen?
@robot-army, @ribbotson, @TomKeddie - So nice to see you all here Welcome!
@Dreg I’d recommend it, it’s rather long bike ride 
It will be interesting to see how much huaqiangbei has changed. I hear there is still a bit of market left, but the transition to dodgy cosmetics and beauty products is pretty extensive. There is probably still some interesting stuff, but the interesting stuff like the dodgy phone market appears to be gone.
Glad I caught word of this! Thanks @ribbotson
Gone gone? 
. Things change, I guess it’s been a while, but maybe it’s just…moved and we need to go “out of town a bit” to find it?
Who else needs to see this post? Akiba? Scotty? Bunnie?
Also @TomKeddie - ur town, I think I’m back in it!
I really don’t want to do a dog and pony show, hoping to have a small get together with old friends and our forum community. It would be nice to see Mitch and his group if they’re going through town.
Getting a little beige bus and driver is easy. Can do a day of outer markets like depu and yihua, and a day of factory tours. A day for group outings in huaqiangbei.
Jin and I have a list of factory tours, but I’m holding that close to my chest because it’s really good and I don’t want to attract too much attention
Hopefully it’s a “whoever shows up” thing. I’d prefer to leave any big events to someone else as it’s a ton of time and I don’t actually know what to expect on the ground so I’m not a good tour guide.
Sounds fabulous. I’m going to have to dig into the leave without pay policy, too much to do for all this work crap. It sounds like you’re talking Spring not Autumn?
I don’t see anything online about a HTTC2025 yet. I’m probably more towards Autumn. I’m too swamped to get away for the next few months, then it gets really really hot and humid.
I’m not sure Mitch has run HTTC since 2019 Category:Hacker Trip To China - Noisebridge but am also sure you know more than me.
I visited a bit of SZ in June (sweat) and much of HQB seemed alive and well. As you would expect the cell phone repair and tablet market are still hopping. The markets seemed mostly the same although I couldn’t find the tools building (probably just me). I did hear only one Fapio which made me a little sad but I suspect this is more the demise of the cash economy than anything.
I was last at Depu in 2019, it looked like it was being overrun by condo towers. I struggled to take this photo (from the side) without including the massive building in the old parking lot out front. I suspect the markets will outlive the towers given the state of the building industry.
I’m not sure about using a mini-van to see the outer markets. It might be best to start/end at Yihua using line 11 to avoid the long trek through the SZ traffic. Depu is also doable from line 11 but a bit far to walk (public bus from train to market is easy).
One interesting challenge I found in June this year was paying for things. I struggled to enable Alipay tourist and baulked at the huge xfer fee. People were openly laughing at me for paying cash - one guy with excellent English came up to me and remarked how he hadn’t seen that stuff in years, no-one had change either (good for small discounts!). Most of the metro card recharge machines seem to be gone or broken. I had to visit the booth to recharge with the person at the desk. Cards seem hard to buy now, everyone is using apps (which I couldn’t work out, might be a mainlander only thing). I still have my cards from 2014 and they still work.
I think I managed to get one of the bicycle apps to play with my foreign wechat though (which was handy). Needed SMS verification though (which was tricky for a tight-arse traveller like me).
Woah! Wonderful! I didn’t remember it had extended that far. Maybe the bus can meet us there and haul us around (cruise the back roads looking for random factories to walk into, depending on group size). Is South China Market also in that direction? It’s a weird place to visit.
I have not seen WD40 in that form factor!
I’m interested!
Secret Japanese?
People being around at the same time is almost a good enough excuse to go. Some outing would be an even better one.
So I have been paying a little bit of attention online recently for going back to Shenzhen. It is pretty generic information, so I’m not sure how useful it is, but here is a bit of a summary.
Maker Faire Shenzhen is usually in the middle of November together with China Hi-tech Fair. There have been some other events at the same time, including KiCon Asia (a KiCad conference) and a factory tour organized by Seeed. It could be a good time to go, but it might not be worth waiting around for it as it is pretty late in the year.
Flying from Europe have gotten a bit worse since most airlines don’t fly the northern route. Chinese airlines still do, so there are still some such flights to Shenzhen and Hong Kong. With a layover it is possible to go through Beijing or the Middle East. Qatar Airways and Emirates have stopover tickets with discounted hotels. Otherwise, there are some amounts of lesser flights and maybe an hour or so longer flight times. Shouldn’t be too big of a deal, but worth keeping in mind when looking for flights.
Visas are a bit better. Most European nationals don’t need a visa to stay in China for 30 days until 31 December 2025. Which saves some application time and around €100 per trip. Unfortunately for me, not for Swedes. There is also a fingerprint exception in effect though, so it could be possible to apply for a visa by mail without going to the visa center.
I was looking for updates from Hacker Trip to China at one point, but haven’t seen anything in recent years. There have been some college type groups going, some live streamers, Scotty a few times I think and some people on the Strange Parts discord.
Doing something like the soldering school would be cool, but I think the most important part for me would just be to go again to hang out and check things out. It has been long enough in general and since that global event as well. On the other hand it would suck to finally go just to learn that some of you were going another month.
So having something to show up to would be good. Doesn’t have to be too elaborate. Some classic Shenzhen stuff that has been mentioned to make it worth the trip. I’m not too good at short trips though, so I would have to go for at least two weeks and would hope that people are around for some BBQ as well.
Haven’t got much “on the ground” information, but isn’t that what going to Shenzhen is for? I have seen there are some new drone delivery vending machines, drone light shows, teamLab installation (which looks a bit lame but might do as a substitute for not having made it to a bigger one), and the usual skyscrapers and infrastructure projects.
I have been wanting to go so if you will have me around I will try to show up. It would be good to have some time beforehand to move things around, get a visa and decently priced tickets.
Oh, and nice injection molding. That factory looks interesting, but not very tourable .
大🐟马？
It would be great to see you again.
I’d really like to go out of band of the really big events. Maybe a week before or something. Though I would be interested in KiCon.
My goal is the traditional South Park experience. BBQ, hot pot, sharing market and taobao finds. Exchanging info on what apps are in, and how to get signed up. Sort of the feel of the week before or after a hacker camp when spontaneous stuff is happening all over at a neighborhood scale.
I will probably have to go for several weeks because LinLin will come too he’s too old to do a quick turn around on 12 hour flights.
I’d be keen too (assuming I get past this current hiccup) - I probably have to go back in the next couple of months, an extra trip wouldn’t be bad - Paul
Paul (Aus from WA) mentioned kicon might be in Shanghai this year.
It would be nice to go there again, as this time I’m not a broke student. Would be nice to get some lamb skewers and beer, and chat with people.
And if anybody decides to come to Tokyo, before or after, can arrange a Akihabara tour.
