Editor’s note:

This page introduces three columns Shenzhen Daily produces, to mark its 25th anniversary. They are “Expat in Shenzhen,” a column that began 20 years ago and has won many provincial- and city-level awards; “Discover Shenzhen,” a column featuring the city’s biodiversity by a Colombian biology teacher; and “Shenzhen in Foreigners’ Eyes” on the city's official Shenzhen Fabu WeChat account, telling Shenzhen and China stories through foreigners’ eyes.

THE column “Expat in Shenzhen” first appeared in Shenzhen Daily on July 2, 2002 and has given readers a glimpse into the full and varied lives expats lead in the city, a thriving metropolis with a growing expat community.

Each of the column’s stories features the work and life of foreigners in Shenzhen. The expats become the storytellers of this beautiful city, providing a window to the outside world to learn about local life. It also serves as a platform to help expats quickly integrate into Shenzhen and its expat community.

The column reflects Shenzhen’s inclusiveness, diversity and vitality through expats’ perspectives, and presents Shenzhen to the international community in more vivid ways. It won a Shenzhen News Prize in 2012, and a Guangdong News Prize in 2013 and 2021, respectively.

In addition to the column being published every Monday, its stories are also released on Shenzhen Daily’s WeChat account and app, as well as on www.eyeshenzhen.com, the city’s English-language portal website.

The stories are also posted on the expat’s own international social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter, which help further expand Shenzhen’s international influence.

The column, which is highly popular among the city’s expats, has also attracted many foreigners to reach out to Shenzhen Daily to tell their stories.

In 2021, the column published a total of 49 articles. These come from 49 expats from 27 countries, who are engaged in various occupations and have their own fields of expertise from entrepreneur, lawyer, engineer, photographer, artist, music teacher, biology teacher and college student, to volunteers committed to ecological environment protection, community service and services for foreign women.(Zhang Yu)