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Sprawling Shenzhen is composed of numerous districts. Luohu and Futian are the "downtown" districts, with most of the major shopping areas and hundreds of hotels. A foray outside the sprawl of Shenzhen proper is worth the trip if you have the time; Yantian and Longgang are the closest destinations for beaches and atmospheric historical buildings.
Futian, Shenzhen's commercial hub, is where Shenzhen's gourmands go for a night of gastronomic pleasure. The Zhenhua Road area has scores of excellent restaurants competing for the patronage of Shenzhen's very discriminating diners. The Shekou neighborhood in the Nanshan District is known for its many outdoor bars and restaurants. It's well known by locals for for Sea World Plaza, a pedestrian mall with alfresco restaurants, low-key bars, and a completely landlocked oceangoing vessel (now transformed into a bar, hotel, and nightclub complex).
If you're interested in watching art in the making, spend an afternoon at the Dafen Oil Painting Village, a small town 20 minutes by taxi from Luohu, which employs thousands of artists painting everything from originals to copies of classics. Where do all those oil paintings you find in motels come from? Visit Dafen and you'll know. It's open most days from about 10 am to 8 pm.
