This is the 17th of a series of reports on expats sharing their stories with the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

ASKED how he would describe Shenzhen, Kamal Mediouni, a businessman, a race car driver and a CrossFit coach from Morocco, says Shenzhen is the safest and most dynamic city that he knows in addition to being open and competitive.

During an interview with Shenzhen Daily, “impressive” is the word most frequently used by the Moroccan, who prefers to go by the name Kamal, when talking about the city, which never ceases to amaze him in terms of its growth and development.

Kamal first came to Shenzhen for business in 2008. Before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, he would travel between Shenzhen, Morocco and France, trading between China, his home country and Europe.

He said Shenzhen has changed rapidly over the past 12 years and the city has never slowed its pace of change.

“It was totally another city. In 2008, there were not many foreigners and there was no WeChat. It was a little bit difficult to communicate because not many people spoke English,” says Kamal when talking about his first impression of the city.

It impresses Kamal that Shenzhen citizens are diligent and fast learners. After 2010 or 2011, everyone started to speak English in Shenzhen and a foreigner could find almost anything that he or she wanted in the city, according to Kamal.

“That’s amazing and unbelievable because everything changed so fast. It’s something that you cannot find in another place. I think even elsewhere in China, you cannot find what you can find in Shenzhen. Shenzhen is really something different,” says Kamal.

As to the disruptive changes, a case in point is the prevalence of mobile payment, according to Kamal.

“We used to carry a lot of cash in our pocket or our bag. But a few years later, like from 2012, if I remember well, we have no more cash. Everything is paid by WeChat or Alipay. You can pay everything and find everything on WeChat.”

Accustomed to the cashless era, Kamal said it’s difficult for him to remember how we operated without WeChat. “Honestly, that’s really impressive. When I go to other countries, I feel a little bit lost because they don’t have this kind of system.”

Kamal is also a race car driver and a CrossFit coach who develops sports programs for gyms. He is part of the Meclon Racing Team, owned by his friend Simon El Alaoui Zidane, and through the team has participated in the China Drift Championship and the D1 Grand Prix.

Kamal says drifting has also been gaining traction in Shenzhen and in China in recent years. “No one was really interested in it before. And since 2015, it has been booming. A lot of people join the championship and the level has also increased a lot.”

In Kamal’s eyes, Shenzhen is always the most advanced city and a testing ground for new ideas and methods for all the other cities. Meanwhile, the city is special in that one can take part in a cornucopia of activities in the city.

“What impressed me the most is the activity and energy of this city, its open and friendly people, and how they want to learn and to mix and to discover. I don’t see another place suiting me better than Shenzhen,” says Kamal.

Looking ahead, Kamal hopes that Shenzhen can be known by everyone in the world because Shenzhen is a city he really admires, a place that starts from scratch with the wisdom and drive of the Chinese people.