Oh My, How Did Shenzhen Get This Bad! Guangzhou and Shenzhen Really Are China's Lifeline, This Is Truly No Small Thing! Qiqi Baba TALK Episode 992 20261007

This episode uses a large number of on-the-ground trends in Shenzhen and submissions from citizens to show the current grim reality in Shenzhen: economic downturn, factory closures, office building vacancies, a reshuffling of cross-border e-commerce, and a surge in large-scale unemployment and homeless populations. It also discusses the impact of the relocation of physical manufacturing on Chinese laborers.

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Present-day Shenzhen has the most shell companies, the most scammers, the most shady agencies, the most homeless people. Foreign-funded enterprises are becoming fewer and fewer, factories are becoming fewer and fewer, talent is becoming scarcer, jobs are becoming fewer, and wages are shrinking. You can just go into any Grade-A office building, rent a small cubicle or a few workstations, and that is a company. Once you arrive, they make you pay a deposit, and then that is the end of it.

Look at this, this is Shenzhen, the country's very first special economic zone. Now there are homeless people everywhere; from here to over there, they are all over.

I find it hard to imagine. In this prosperous city of Shenzhen, I never thought so many people would be reduced to being so poor they have nowhere to live, forced to scavenge leftover takeout and items from the trash on the streets just to eat. I used to think that as long as you have hands and feet and can work, you can always earn enough money to feed yourself. But I never thought—and I feel guilty for my own ignorance—that in this very same city of Shenzhen, and I never would have imagined it, I thought poverty where you are reduced to sleeping under a bridge and having nowhere to sleep was something from our parents' generation, a scene from the Shenzhen of their era where people coming to Shenzhen for work had nowhere to sleep and had to deal with temporary residence permits. But I never thought that right now, at this very moment, these scenes are playing out right beside us in Shenzhen. I used to think Shenzhen was prosperous enough, and in many ways it really is quite humane. But I didn't expect that, whether due to information gaps or other reasons, so many people are still wandering and homeless.

I've been in Shenzhen for a month and still haven't found a job. I want to ask, why? Why?

It seems everyone in Shenzhen is struggling to find a job. After I posted my last video, some people said they had been looking for half a year, some for a year, and others said they had been lying flat for several years. For the first time, I realized that finding a job could be such a difficult thing.

Behind the place I rent in Shenzhen, there are many homeless people. Looking at them, I wonder if I will end up the same way in the future. Right now, it's really impossible to find a job in Shenzhen, and I've been living off my savings. It feels like ordinary people have no way out anywhere, and everything is a killing zone. I even worked here for three years and didn't save a single penny.

This place called Shenzhen is not somewhere you should come! Don't think that coming to Shenzhen makes you a Shenzhen local, and don't think that coming to Shenzhen means you can make money.

Shenzhen doesn't have high...

wages. I've said this sentence many times now. Nowadays, a job with a two-day weekend, five thousand a month, and food and lodging provided can already be considered a divine job.

Coming to Shenzhen, failing to find a job for a long time, and lacking the capital to lie flat—this is the ultimate destination. Shenzhen is great, everyone come on over!

Goodbye, Shenzhen! I'm not coming to Shenzhen anymore next year; it's truly unsuitable for working!

After enduring over a dozen years in Shenzhen, I finally left.

I originally planned to visit my cousin during the National Day holiday and have him help me find a job after the holiday. As it turned out, both of them had lost their jobs. They used to make twenty to thirty thousand a month, but now one is delivering takeout and the other is running a street stall, while still facing a mortgage of over three million. My cousin even graduated from a Project 211 key university, and he said he would rather find a job back home paying one or two thousand than come here. So goodbye, Shenzhen.

In the past, dormitories like this were packed with workers' clothes. Look at it now—there are no more migrant workers left.

Many factories in the Bao'an District of Shenzhen have closed down or moved away. Without factories, there are no people, and without people, these shops will inevitably follow suit and close down. Shenzhen, which started out relying on foreign capital and manufacturing, now has neither. How is it going to develop in the future?

Yet another boss has gone missing after opening a factory, leaving behind unpaid wages for so many employees. A wall is completely covered with notices of employees' wages, attendance, and unpaid amounts. This is in Longgang, Shenzhen, at the factory buildings of a company called Yuanfang; the previous company has already initiated legal proceedings.

In the Longshan Industrial Zone, many factories have been found closed down, with numerous factory buildings already converted into e-commerce warehouses and apartments, while many others remain in a state available for rent. Why has Shenzhen turned into this state now? This is supposed to be a Special Economic Zone and a first-tier city nationwide; the entire industrial zone is desolate everywhere, and you can hardly hear the roaring of machines or the bustling voices of people. No wonder more and more people are leaving Shenzhen. For ordinary migrant workers, there is truly no paradise here, only hell.

Factories in Shenzhen are having a terribly hard time right now. Seven or eight out of ten are losing money, only one or two can barely break even, and less than ten percent are actually making a profit.

Alas, the large industrial zones in Shenzhen have seen so many factories close down, leaving them sparsely populated. The bustling scene of the major industrial zones from years ago is completely gone.

Yet another factory in Shenzhen has closed down. What on earth is wrong with Shenzhen now? Factories are closing one after another, with seven or eight shutting down just around the National Day holiday.

Given how high the vacancy rate of office buildings in Shenzhen is right now, I don't understand why they are still under construction, being built day in and day out. Who are you building them for to rent out? At least half of these office buildings here cannot be rented out at all. With the economy so bad, what is the point of putting up so many high-end office buildings?

Today I came to the core area of Shenzhen, but I was so disappointed, it was an eye-opener in the worst way. Look at these buildings; they do not even dare to display any brand names, especially this Dapeng. Isn't Shenzhen known as Pengcheng (the City of the Roc)? Look at this Dapeng, it is no longer spreading its wings, its wings have dropped to the ground. What does this symbolize? It symbolizes a poor economy and that money is hard to make.

I am 37 years old and already unemployed in Shenzhen, supported by my husband and my boss, living a rather plain and ordinary life. There is simply no comparing this to the past, when I never had to worry about money regarding food, clothing, housing, or transportation. Now, when buying vegetables, I have to compare which place is cheaper. To be honest, Shenzhen right now, and first-tier cities in general, are no longer very suitable for young people's development. Not to mention opportunities to strike it rich, even the path to mere survival is very narrow. A bunch of graduates from 211 universities are coming over to deliver food and courier packages. The Popo Supermarket items I order every day are delivered right to the seventh floor. Wow! When I open the door, those delivery guys are top-notch handsome young men, clearly university graduates, not the ordinary uneducated type, all of them cut from the exact same cloth. You ask what they are doing staying here? Honestly, if it weren't for having a child, I would have gone back home to farm the land, right? If I farmed the land now, I might actually have a way out. Staying here in Shenzhen, I truly have no way out at all, other than being a human meat grinder. As people say, you make your money in Shenzhen and you spend it in Shenzhen, and don't even think about bringing a single cent back home.

Totally screwed over. I came here wanting to make a little living expense, but ended up having to fight just to get some. Damn it, these people can really eat you out of house and home, I honestly cannot out-compete them.

Online chicken soup articles say: "Shenzhen is paved with gold, and with hard work you can turn your life around." Wake up! Today's Shenzhen only filters for the strong and offers zero tolerance or inclusion for ordinary people.

Is your impression of Shenzhen one where high-tech enterprises are everywhere and talent is found in every corner? In reality, much of Shenzhen consists of these 300 to 500-square-meter workshop-style assembly plants. Inside those high-end office buildings, probably half are scam companies, and even traditional low-end manufacturing no longer exists on a significant scale, with many having relocated to surrounding regions or the mainland. This is the real, authentic state of Shenzhen. Those high-end manufacturing companies and internet giants in Shenzhen account for only a tiny, tiny fraction.

There is a massive reshuffle in Shenzhen cross-border e-commerce in 2026, with six hundred thousand sellers exiting en masse. This time, truly no one is trying to persuade them to stay. Look at veteran sellers in places like Bantian, Fuyong, and South China City who have endured for five or six years—this year they are all secretly doing the exact same thing: clearing out their storefronts, laying off their teams, and cutting business lines, with some simply shutting their doors and walking away for good! In just the span of a single year, you can see that active sellers on Amazon globally have directly plummeted by six hundred thousand. If we calculate by regional proportion, Shenzhen alone has seen sixty-seven thousand sellers flee. Don't tell me this is just some ordinary off-season washout, nor is it a short-term fluctuation; this is the largest-scale reshuffle in the history of Shenzhen cross-border e-commerce.

This is South China City in 2026, where eighty percent of it is in a vacant state. Previously, a single storefront here was more expensive than surrounding housing prices, once serving as a paradise for foreign trade practitioners. Yet today, you can hardly believe how desolate it is, with many companies in a state of closure and lease termination, looking completely deserted without a single person in sight. These storefronts that used to cost millions now have no takers even at tens of thousands. Can anyone still claim that Shenzhen is paved with gold?

Just how difficult is it for physical stores in South China City this year? Today is Sunday, and since there was no one coming to do business, I didn't even have the heart to turn on the air conditioning. Then I noticed the boss across the way: not only had he not turned on his air conditioning, he hadn't even turned on his lights, and not only had he not turned on his lights, he hadn't even turned on his fan. Oh my goodness! Oh, truly, I thought I was being frugal, but it turns out he was even more frugal than me.

Brothers, another Taobao business has moved out here. This company had only been here for about three months, I think. There are definitely more e-commerce companies going bust than those doing well, so don't ask about whether it's a blue ocean or not. This industry is actually really hard to make money in; it's truly a grueling manual labor job. For those newbies who read some posts online and think they can get rich quick in e-commerce, I really advise you not to come. You'd be better off just finding a regular job, honestly.

My team officially disbanded this week, and the company has become a true talent agency. There's no other way; I'm very reluctant, but, well, I haven't been able to generate profits for the team for a long time, or lead the team to achieve better results, so, uh, I have no choice but to disband. If I keep dragging it out, my partners won't be able to make money following me, and life will be very difficult.

It's over! The boss ran away, nobody wants the stuff, nobody even wants the boards, everything has turned into trash! Fuck, forget it!

There are no good jobs now. Many factories have very low wages, 17 yuan an hour without meals included. It's too much of an involution, here in Shenzhen.

Another ride-hailing driver has fallen, another ride-hailing driver has fallen.

This is Shenzhen, a first-tier city! For rent, for rent, for rent, for rent! Along this whole row, two-thirds of the shops are for rent.

Brothers, what's going on? Look at the Kexing Science Park in Nanshan, shops here used to be impossible to get. Look at it now, at the peak of lunchtime, it's deserted. Why are there so many empty shops here? What's the reason? Now, even if you move in, you just take it.

It's less than 5,000 now, the lowest is only a little over 4,000. After deducting food expenses, rent, and daily shopping costs, you can only save one or two thousand. What's the point of that? I used to think that working in a factory would pay 6,000 or 7,000 a month, but I didn't expect it to get lower and lower, not even 5,000 now.

Are there so many unemployed people in Shenzhen now? I just asked four friends born in the 80s, three of them are unemployed. Is it really this difficult now?

Jobs are really hard to find. I was born in 1996, I'm 30 now. My highest degree is from a vocational school, I'm unmarried and have no children. It's already very hard for me to find a job with these two conditions. I went to interview for a customer service position at a company, and they had requirements for height, age, and appearance. I passed the first two, but regarding appearance, they thought I wasn't pretty enough from my photo, so I didn't pass. Actually, I don't understand it either. You're a customer service role that doesn't even need to meet customers, why have so many requirements? I'm speechless. I went to interview as a waiter, and the waiter position complained that I was too old, directly and blatantly saying that 30 is too old. Blatantly! If you think 30-year-old staff are too old, why let 30-year-old customers come in? Why earn money from us customers over 30? I went to interview at a factory, and the factory complained that I have a Shenzhen household registration, so they didn't want me.

Do we Chinese not deserve high incomes? As far as I know, Tesla's factory in Shanghai has the lowest wages in the world, but here, it's considered a high wage. Musk had an interview before, saying he felt very guilty and felt sorry for the Shanghai Tesla employees, so he kept trying to find ways to increase the income of Shanghai Tesla employees. In contrast, our own companies take the lead in boycotting and complaining about the Tesla factory, and the reasons are even more ridiculous: disrupting market balance and suppressing local enterprises. I've been thinking about a question: why do some of our companies donate money to charity every day, but just won't raise their employees' wages? The relationship between foreign companies and employees is just an employment relationship: I work for you, you give me corresponding compensation, nothing more. Unlike some of our companies, where if they give you a job, you have to be grateful to them. It's not that I hate our state-owned enterprises or central enterprises, but as someone at the very bottom, as a consumer at the very bottom, and as a member of the working class, I should support companies that respect our working class.

Now these shops, everywhere, this row, this row, all of them are empty, all of them are empty, almost none are operating. This one seems to have decent clothes, they say this one is rented by a rich woman. Ah, and then, this, this, this, all of them are empty. Walking along this row, wow, is the economy this year really that bad? This row used to be very busy, I rented one for 10,000 or 20,000 in rent.

It's over, nothing to do again. The workshop is empty, the machines aren't even turned on, the printing presses aren't turned on either.

It's 11 PM. I just met a homeless uncle. He used to run two hardware factories, then ended up owing 3.5 million, and his wife divorced him. He said his parents passed away and he has no home. He is now wandering in Shenzhen. I don't know if he gained anything from begging along the way, and I don't know if he's lying or if there's some other hidden story. Some people might think, what if he uses this money to, uh, do something else, or if he's just not working hard himself, or something. Anyway, whether I'm being scammed or whatever, let it be. I just hope that a little money can help him get back home, or even halfway there, to find his relatives. Although I'm not doing very well myself, I just can't bear to see this kind of human suffering.

Uh, to put it this way to everyone, factories and the like can be said to be the foundation for the survival of half of the Chinese people, that is, the main labor force. I think maybe even saying that is understating it, understating it. Uh, let's be conservative and just say half. So if we lose these factories, if China loses its status as the world's factory, everyone can freely imagine what the Chinese people will do, right? But I can only say that now, if you look at the situation in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, which are the areas with the most and most concentrated factories, how many factories have moved away from Guangdong? And it's not just this. It's not just foreign enterprises; many domestic Chinese enterprises and factories have even moved to surrounding countries like Vietnam. The current situation is truly terrifying. Alright, that is all for this episode. If you want to support me, please join the membership channel. And also, I really hope everyone can chat with me in real time during the member live streams. So that's it for this episode, see you next time.