Che Gong Miao XINWEN STREET EAT STREET
The food here’s particularly good but the food is only a secondary reason for going to Xinwen St. Xinwen means news and this eat street, situated right behind the Special Zone Press Tower, is where Shenzhen’s journalists go to eat and drink. There’s a special buzz as they huddle round tables discussing scandal in hushed tones occasionally looking over their shoulders to check that some rival who may scoop them isn’t overhearing. Sometimes you see a table of fashion journalists, notable for the elegance of the females and the gayness of the males.
You can get all sorts of food here. Our favourite is the Lao Bei Fang which serves excellent jiaozi. These are a northern speciality, pastry pockets filled with pork, cabbage, chives and all sorts of variations on that theme. Being northern you can also get all sorts of Beijing specialities. We are addicted to green onion cakes, hot and sour soup and gong bao chicken and these feature high on the menu. The restaurant is in the atrium of the main restaurant building as are several others including the Ba Dao Hakka Restaurant, the Chengdu Niu Wang Temple Noodle Shop and the Ming Ge, basically a teashop.
There is also a good Heilongjiang food restaurant. Wu Gu Qing, 8306 4917. Heilongjiang being one of the poorer provinces is well represented amongst the immigrants in Shenzhen. Like most restaurants in Shenzhen, this doesn’t serve totally authentic food. The reason for this is that the cooks are often from Hunan and little Hunanese touches creep in. If you discover that all your food is coloured red and green, say Hunan cook. But this is a favourite of the press. It has one special service. For some reason the parking police in Xinwen St are the most predatory on town and have regular lunchtime raids. This restaurant has some arrangement whereby they can preannounce the raid, usually resulting in much scurrying. And for real Hunan food just go next door to Xiang Fen Ren Jia .
If you just want to sip and watch there is a Starbucks on the corner and several teashops.
Address: Xinwen St Xiangmihu, just behind the Special Zone Press Tower
