I lived there for 1 year, as a white-skinned young girl, a foreigner, working as a model.

Alone, using taxis, metro, buses and sometimes coming back to home at 3 am.

I wasn’t living in the city centre. It was not even an area for foreigners. It was a typical local Chinese area with small streets and smelly (sorry) fried tofu for breakfast.

And you know what? I am alive. I am still alive and never had unpleasant accidents in Shenzhen.

So I can for sure say - it’s the safest place I’ve ever been to.

Really. I often went home really late or needed to be very early at work due to the specifics of my job (I was a model). In these cases I took a taxi at 3–4 am - quite a dangerous time all over the world because all the people are sleeping, but criminals are not :)

But not in Shenzhen. I was feeling very safe, always slept in the back seat without worrying that the driver could take me into the wrong location or not take me at all.

For the whole year, I haven’t seen even people with intentions to do any harm to anyone, not only to me.

It is needed to say, that I am a slightly absent-minded person and that’s normal for me to lose umbrellas, gloves and all little things. But only in Shenzhen - PEOPLE FOUND ME AND RETURNED MY STUFF BACK.

Example:

I was sitting on the bench on a metro platform, reading a book on my iPad. And then my train arrived. I quickly picked all my stuff up and got in. And then I realised (of course when the doors were already closed) that… I LEFT MY IPAD ON THE BENCH. And the train is ready to move. Fuck.

But. There was a couple that saw this situation taking place. And they showed without any words that no worries, just get out on the next station and get back. It was kind of a pantomime in 4 seconds between me and them.

And you know what - I returned, they waited for me. And they just gave my iPad back to me. It’s so… humane? You know? I would do the same in their place. But how many people would do that too?

Or another example. If you leave a bag or something else and be back in 5–10 minutes - rest assured, the bag will stay in the same place. I even made my own experiment. I was sitting on the terrace (in a very crowded area) in KFC and realized that I forgot sauce for my fries. Ok well. I just stood up, left all my stuff and went for sauce inside the building.

I would NEVER. DO. IT. IN. MY. NATIVE. COUNTRY. Because it would be the last time I would see my bag, phone and other stuff. I was absent for around 4 minutes… and you know what? I returned, and of course everything was in the same place. And it was every time like this.

The biggest concern about missing stuff in Shenzhen would be the cleaning lady, who can just take it and throw it away :)

In China I began to feel so relaxed about being safe, that I got used to this feeling. And I was robbed because of this in Thailand because yeah, I just left my phone on the bike and left to feed birdies. And when I returned in 5 minutes, of course there was no phone. In fucking 5 minutes.

But that taught me to be more cautious outside of China.

What makes Shenzhen so safe?

• Educated people
  
  What is the age mostly for troublemakers all over the world? Teenagers. Because their minds are turning upside down, they are very vulnerable for all wrong inceptions and kids are very easy to be persuaded to become bandits.
  
  In Shenzhen I very rarely even see teenagers on the street.
  Ok well, only a few times. In school uniform. They had very dangerous look :)
  Because they are studying. The whole day. They have school classes, they have extra activities. But for sure they are not wasting their time on the streets.
  That really astonished me a lot.
• Payment capability
  
  Shenzhen is a rich city. There are really big salaries, lots of well-paid jobs and not so many people as in other Chinese cities to do it.
  
  Ok well, returning to the situation with my iPad. For what sake people would take my glass-broken iPad if they already have the newest iPad and feel free to buy the next one even tomorrow?
  
  People don’t need your stuff if they can afford to buy it. That’s the truth.
• Police and video observation
  
  On the streets there are poles with non-stop camera all over Shenzhen. And it is very unreasonable to commit a crime when you are WATCHED all the time, because you will simply be found in 5 minutes. You will not even get a chance to escape. So…
  
  The same with police.
  I don’t know about its effectiveness, but I saw police stations in many places.

So, what’s the point? Shenzhen is super-safe. Shenzhen is an extremely-safe city! And it’s very warm to foreigners. There is no huge interest in them like in other Chinese cities, because Shenzhen is simply full of foreigners. The biggest your trouble will be a shrink of your space bubble (but you’re in China so just get used to it).

Shenzhen is a very comfortable city for living.

By the way, if you want to move to China as well - here I answered on what kind of jobs you can apply to as a foreigner: Kateryna Tomchuk's answer to How do I get a job in China?
Hope, it would be interesting for you as well.

Here are some photos for you:

Don’t be afraid to come here! I hope I was useful. Have a good day!

P.S. check my other answers about China:
- How a foreigner can get a job in China?
- My review of Shenzhen
- How to be vegetarian in China?
- Hong Kong vs Shenzhen comparison
- Do people in HK, SZ and GZ speak the same language? - Is Shenzhen is as bad as Hong Kong people think?