A recently talked with the plant manager of an American Fortune 500 company that has a facility in Shenzhen. It’s been a couple years since I’ve been down to Shenzhen. I asked her if the environment had become any more livable since the economic downturn and the talk of Guangdong trying to upgrade its manufacturing sector to higher-value production, and to services. She flatly answered “No.” In fact, she told me, she lives in Hong Kong. Though the downtown area might be all bright lights, big city, the manufacturing districts were unsafe, especially at night. She worked a long four-day work week in Shenzhen, then retired to HK on Fridays for a bit of civilization.

The characters of places are as devilishly difficult to change as people themselves.