In late July I ran a genuinely challenging project: partnering with an overseas founder-coliving organization to invite entrepreneurs from around the world — people wanting to understand hardware and start hardware businesses — to explore Shenzhen. Despite a typhoon and lodging hiccups, the project wrapped up smoothly. 7月底做了一个很有挑战性的项目，是跟一个海外创业者共居组织合作，邀请全球想要了解硬件、开启硬件事业的创业者探访深圳。尽管遭遇了台风、住宿等波折，但项目还是顺利收尾了。
What kind of event was this? 这是场什么活动？
In short: eight overseas founders coliving in Shenzhen for eight days, connecting with local young entrepreneurs, visiting maker spaces and hardware accelerators, touring industrial design studios — everything a hardware founder needs to understand. As the coordinator, I connected every node in Shenzhen and was hands-on through the whole event. For me, it was a truly singular experience. 简单来说，是组织8位海外创业者在深圳共居8天，并且带他们链接深圳在地的青年创业者、了解深圳创客空间和硬件加速孵化器、探访工业设计工作室等硬件创业必须了解信息的活动。我作为统筹人，不仅链接了深圳各个节点，且全程参与活动的对接和落地。于我而言，真真是一场独特的体验。
What did I see? 我都看到些什么？
01 — One big consensus: two great economies, China and the US 01 一个大的共识：中美两大经济体
When you're inside the mountain, you can't see its true face. But in everyone else's eyes, the one place on Earth where you can turn technology from imagination into physical objects at unbeatable cost-performance is China — and only China. 当我们身处庐山，很有可能“不识真面目”，但在其他人眼里，能直接把技术从想象变成实物的性价比之地，有且只有中国。
02 — Home to the most energetic, execution-driven young people 02 这里拥有最有活力和执行力的青年人
It was my first time in Shenzhen, and researching the Greater Bay Area shocked me: covering Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou on China's southern coast, it occupies just 1% of China's land yet holds 86 million people and 12% of national GDP. At roughly $2 trillion, if it were an independent country it would rank 11th in the world — on par with Canada or Brazil. 因为是第一次去深圳，不查不知道，一查吓一跳，大湾区比我想象中还要厉害：大湾区位于中国南部沿海地区，涵盖香港、澳门、深圳和广州等城市。虽然只占中国陆地面积的1%，但却拥有8600万人口，占中国国内生产总值的12%。该地区的 GDP 约为2万亿美元，如果作为一个独立国家，其 GDP 将在全球排名第11位，与加拿大和巴西等大型经济体相当。
Factories everywhere, companies everywhere, and a higher density of dream-chasing young people. At TroubleMaker, Shenzhen's famous hardware incubator, I met many overseas Chinese who chose Shenzhen as their landing pad, testing whether its hardware advantages could power their own ventures — including a Brazilian-Taiwanese founder who came all the way from Brazil to build an education startup. 这里工厂多、公司多，身怀梦想的年轻人密度更高。在 TroubleMaker 这个深圳知名的硬件孵化器上，我见到许多华裔选择深圳落脚，尝试看能不能将深圳的硬件优势应用在自己的业务上。那天就遇见一位巴西台湾的小哥，从巴西远赴深圳做教育创业。
03 — Shenzhen (or rather, China) really does move faster 03 深圳，或者说中国，真的走的比别的地方快
Huaqiangbei's head start: astonishing foreigners is routine now. I'd long heard the name, but this was my first time actually walking Huaqiangbei. Towers everywhere — the storied SEG complex alone has six buildings, each specializing in a different category. Endless product lines, factory-direct prices, steep discounts after haggling. AR glasses that seem far from daily life? If all you need is real-time translation, ¥300 takes a pair home. 华强北的抢跑：惊艳外国人已经是正常事了。虽然久闻大名，但这次真的是我第一次实地到华强北。这里高楼林立，历史悠久的赛格大厦有六栋，每栋都有不同的品类。品类繁多、工厂直销、砍价后价格直降，看得人眼花缭乱。在这里，看似离我们生活很遥远的AR眼镜，如果仅要实时翻译功能，300块就能直接拿下。
The Bay Area's war for talent: incubators compete locally, and Hong Kong competes with Shenzhen… Every district of Shenzhen has more incubators than I imagined. We visited the international enterprise service center of Yuehai Subdistrict — the "universe's street" — and researched Qianhai's incubators online. Each emphasizes its own differentiation and precision services, each trying to out-support the others. 大湾区抢人大战：在地孵化器抢人、港深也抢……深圳的各大区域都有很多孵化器，是远超我想象的。这次我们去拜访了“宇宙街道”粤海街道的国际企服中心，也有线上了解前海的一些孵化器，可以了解到不同孵化器的支持力度，都有在强调自己的差异化和精准服务。
04 — Incredibly down-to-earth 04 非常接地气！
Inside TroubleMaker's space, a large laser cutter sits backstage and mold-making machines are within arm's reach. Makers can create a demo at extreme speed and minimal cost; the Bay Area's small and mid-sized factories pick it up from there. In this environment you can rapidly test whether your idea makes money. 在知名硬件加速孵化器 TroubleMaker 的空间里，大型激光切割机就藏在后台，各种模具机器就摆放在手边……Maker 们能用极快的速度和极低的成本创造一个自己的 demo，大湾区其他的中小型厂商就能快速接上……在这样的环境里，能快速检验自己的 idea 能否赚钱。
How did it feel? 感受如何？
01 — The biggest takeaway: entrepreneurship really is the "home" for those outside the standard track 01 最重要的一点感受：创业者，真的会是轨道外个体的“归宿”
What moved me most in Shenzhen was a new understanding of "entrepreneurship." Business has no big or small, no high or low — it's an interpretation of value. How to better express and realize your own value is the eternal question we explore, winding forward, constantly evolving. 在深圳最让我有所触动的，是对“创业”的认知。生意没有大小高低，更多的是对“价值”的诠释。如何更好地体现和实现自己的价值，是我们永恒探索、曲折向前、不断进化的课题。
02 — Integrating resources in the name of a project is a fun and useful experiment 02 以项目为名去整合资源是一次有趣又有用的尝试
This project started with maybe 10% of its content in place. Everything else depended on my "almighty circle of friends" — letting me, someone who had never set foot in Shenzhen, string together every node: original brand founders, industrial design studio founders, maker space leads… I touched every partner at least once through this project. That was both the pain and the joy of it. (Google Meet's live captions genuinely saved my life.) 这个项目一开始内容进展只有10%，全依赖着我“万能的朋友圈”，让我这个从未去过深圳的人，串联起各个节点。原创品牌创始人、工业设计工作室 founder、创客空间负责人……所有的伙伴，我都通过这次项目或多或少接触了一遍。这也是项目中有苦有乐的一点。（Google 会议的字幕功能真的救老命了。）
03 — Ask questions. Don't stay silent. 03 要善于提问，不要沉默
Say "STEM guy" and we picture someone heads-down and quiet. The foreign engineers on this trip broke that stereotype for me. A product design studio visit was scheduled for about two hours — 60 minutes of sharing, 30 of touring, 30 of Q&A. Instead, thirty minutes into the talk, the questions started and never stopped. Ask, think, ask again — we need to run this loop even faster! 提起“理工科”，我们的印象都是埋头做事鲜少说话的模样。但这次接触外国“理工男”，真的有让我改变这个标签。拜访产品设计工作室原定是2小时左右，分享/参观/问答分别占60/30/30分钟。结果没想到，分享刚开始30分钟，问答就停不下来了。提问，思考，提问，我们需要把这个循环跑得再快一些！
04 — Language is the key that opens new doors 04 语言是开启新大门的钥匙
Personally, the happiest surprise was how smoothly communication went with overseas founders. As someone who keeps practicing with a 1-on-1 speaking coach and has given talks in English at events, I had a foundation but still felt anxious. Yet facing every scenario — casual and professional — and every accent, I handled it well! It genuinely felt like a full-spectrum level-up. 😺 这次与我个人而言，最令人欣喜的是跟海外创业者交流比想象中顺畅。作为一个持续跟 1v1 口语老师练习、在英文活动中做过英文分享的人，虽然有一定基础，但依旧不免感到焦虑。在这次面对各种场景（有生活化也有职业化）、各种口音的情况下，居然都能比较好地 handle！真的让我非常欣喜，感觉能力有了全方位的提升😺
One more thing: how inconvenient mainland China still is for foreigners exceeds imagination — and so does the warmth of Chinese people. Even with major apps adapted, foreigners face real friction (thankfully our participants were wonderfully tolerant — I could cry 😭). And Guangdong's aunties and uncles, having seen it all, carried a powerful host mentality: "don't let guests leave empty-handed," stepping in to help unprompted. 还有一点是：在大陆的外国人不便利之处远超想象，中国人的热情程度也远超想象。虽然各大常用 app 已经做了适配，但外国人依旧有非常大的不便，但还好，这次随行参与者们真的很包容（我哭😭）；而且广东的叔叔阿姨们都见惯大风大浪，有着非常强的“主人公”意识，秉承着“不让客人白来”“友好待客”的态度，主动帮助他们。
And one more thought… 还有一点……的想法
Back in Hangzhou and Shanghai, talking through this experience with different friends, I realized how much room it has to expand — overseas talent matching, incubator support… even just precisely connecting founders to specific suppliers is already a deep business in itself. Next, beyond inbound culture-and-tourism, I'll be looking at bigger possibilities — domains closer to tech and developers. 回到杭州和上海跟不同朋友聊起这段经历，发现这里面拓展性很大——例如海外人才对接、孵化器支持……甚至仅仅是帮忙精准链接具体的供应商，已经是很深的一门生意了。接下来，我会在入境文旅之外，去看看更大的可能性——跟科技、开发者更相关的领域。
Come on then — let the storm rage harder. :) 来吧，让暴风雨来的再猛烈些吧。:)
Hey, what else have you been up to? — Riding this project's momentum, I took all my unused leave from the first half of the year at once: seven cities in three weeks. Kunshan → Pingnan → Shenzhen → Guangzhou → Huizhou (Huiyang & east Huidong) → Shantou → Longyou → Shanghai → Kunshan. More stories in the next recap~ 嘿，你最近还干嘛去了？——顺着这个项目，一次性把上半年没休的假都休了。三周去了7个城市。江苏昆山➡️福建屏南➡️广东深圳➡️广东广州➡️广东惠州（惠阳&惠东南）➡️广东汕头➡️浙江龙游➡️上海➡️江苏昆山。更多故事请关注下一篇回顾～