Wei Jie and Ye Zhihao

Claudiamente@hotmail.com

A GROUP of expat residents and international students who participated in a tour of Nanshan District on Saturday said they were impressed by the district’s low-carbon efforts and cosmopolitan vitality, which offer expats a stronger sense of belonging and integration.

Visiting the Xili Lake Greenway, the Nanshan Energy Ecological Park, and a Shekou international neighborhood, participants gained insight into Shenzhen’s integration of nature and sustainability into daily life and Nanshan’s green infrastructure, energy efforts, and community life.

During a visit to the Xili Lake Greenway — a 16-km loop around the Xili Reservoir — Indonesian student Jesselyn Julietta Sutantio shared that she was surprised by Shenzhen’s plentiful greenery when she first settled in the city. She said she often goes jogging in the parks in Nanshan.

After the greenway, the group visited the Nanshan Energy Ecological Park, a waste-to-energy facility that incorporates urban science education, research-study programs, and green exhibitions. For many of them, the park was their first opportunity to see how a modern city turns garbage into usable energy.

Bibi Sakina, a Pakistani student at the Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), said she had studied the “3R” environmental principles — reduce, reuse, recycle — in class, but this was the first time she had seen those ideas implemented in city infrastructure.

Nisa Iqbal, another Pakistani student researching environmental protection and heavy-metal remediation, was particularly drawn to the park’s pollutant-treatment processes.

Muhammad Abdullah, a Shenzhen University student who has lived in the city for three years, highlighted the park’s wider benefits. “Seeing resource recycling here made it clear how it can both improve the environment and cut energy costs,” he said. “Turning waste into electricity helps keep the city clean and lowers power costs.”

In the afternoon, the group attended a student football match at the Shekou Sports Center — an experience many said was key to understanding everyday life in Nanshan.

“Sport is one way to grasp a city’s energy,” said Muhammad Auwal Saliu, a student at Shenzhen Polytechnic University.