Overseas China Town (OCT) East

China is a wonderful place, full of curiosity, bustling cities and good food. It’s centrally located to many different parts of Asia, including Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, etc. You will save those trips for the week long Chinese holidays you have throughout the year. What about the weekends? About an hour from the Shenzhen’s city center is OCT (Overseas China Town) East, a ‘Swiss Mountain Resort – centered around the 5-star Interlaken Hotel and Village. Here is an except from a Time Magazine article about this Swiss haven in China.

Shenzhen’s Interlaken offers Chinese tourists a little taste of Europe closer to home. Its developer, Shenzhen OCT Sanzhou Investment, has sunk nearly $450 million into the park’s 2,200 acres (890 hectares). Located on a crystal-clear man-made lake, the centerpiece is a 300-room, five-star hotel with a Gothic cathedral lobby and an Austrian chef. The drive for authenticity is relentless: last summer an alpine songfest even brought yodelers to the resort. You can tour the property aboard an antique railroad that circles it, or view it from the highest summit–some 50 ft. (15 m) above–before plunging down the slope on the gondola cum roller coaster. Says hotel event manager Selina Liu: “All of our guests say they forget they’re not in Europe.”

That’s Time Magazine’s take on OCT East, now let me give you my first hand account. We went with a group sponsored by Shenzhen Daily newspaper so we received a special tour, seeing a little bit of everything.  First, the property is incredibly beautiful and includes great European architecture, a botanical garden with a seemingly ocean sized area of sunflowers, picturesque wood walking bridges overlooking long reaching green landscapes, old Chinese type villages, hotair ballons and horse riding stables. Instead of a vineyard that you would expect in Europe, OCT East features large tea groves. I thought this was a interesting change. They also feature a “Tea Show” (hard to explain, except it is like a play having to do with Tea). OCT feels like a Chinese Disney Land. There are characters from the tea show walking the streets. Different areas to the park, Swiss European town and ancient Chinese villages. While I went to OCT East expecting a great European meal I couldn’t find any. Possible the hotel features some, but most of the European town areas have great buildings with Chinese gift shops and restaurants. Everything is Europe on the outside and  little on the inside.

OCT East Blog Tour

I feel it necessary to start my blog tour of OCT East in a similar fashion to my own: OCT east features live entertainment on the streets of their Swiss Village. Today there are a bunch of Jamaican sounding guys singing Backstreet Boys. The video is not so good because of the crowd, but the audio is funny!

Entrance to OCT East and the Swiss village

Upon entering OCT East you are greeted by characters from the Tea Show

Midway through the park is the ancient Chinese village with people working in the tea fields on the mountain. They will break out in song and dance soon. Look closely.

Extremely long walking bridge.

Tea making area. This was an opportune time for photographers encouring some poses with the tea.

The main event, Interlacken Hotel overlooking a man made lake.

Botanical Gardens with Butterfly habitat

Forget the Oscars, OCT has the Tea Show!

Now let’s talk about the OCT East Tea Show. This show defies words so I will explain via pictures and video. Yes I know, you aren’t suppose to take pictures, but this is China.

Tea Show Theater.

Tea Show Videos

Here are some videos from the Tea Show!

The Best Schools in Shenzhen

Moving to China is all about relearning how to accomplish rudimentary tasks that we take for granted back in our home countries. A simple run to the grocery store might require seven of your best friend’s assistance and take 3 hours. All that can be said is, That’s China!  It’s important to take any advice that can get you to your goals in China faster. After all, how long have you been here compared to everyone else, they have already learned the ropes.

Perhaps you have moved to Shenzhen, China, about 45 minutes by jet-boat ferry from Hong Kong and want the best education for your family. Here is a list of some of the best choices from someone that knows.

There are two primary school systems that exist to choose from in this city, SIS and QSI. Each have a student body consisting of about a thousand students with classroom sizes ranging from 10-16 per teacher. Campuses are spread out in the city encompassing old-world relaxed mountain-side environments away from the bustle of the city to ocean view schools within walking distance of your home to modern facilities with high technology, plasma screens in multi-level buildings.

SIS [Shekou, Shenzhen International School – China]

Established in 1988, Shekou International School is dedicated to meeting the needs of the expatriate community in the Shenzhen and Hong Kong area. The school was founded by oil companies working in the South China Sea and is managed and governed by International Schools Services (ISS). We offer an excellent academic program to meet parents’ high expectations. Shekou International School is the only school in the Shenzhen area that is fully accredited by Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).

QSI [Quality Schools International – Shenzhen China]

QSI International School of Shekou, a fully accredited (Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools) not for profit international school. QSI Shekou offers a warm environment and rigorous education in English for students from two (2) years of age through eighteen (18) years of age. The school offers a complete secondary program, including a number of AP courses (2007-08).

The school features 60 classrooms, new science labs, library (10,000+ titles), three computer labs, an outdoor play area, basketball courts and gymnasium. Additionally, there is a large soccer and play field area adjacent to the school. Our campus is located in a convenient location for international families in the desirable Shekou community of Shenzhen. Door to door busing is available, as is a hot lunch program (Western, Korean and Japanese) for families. Class sizes are small .