Joining Maker Faire Shenzhen 2016



I joined Maker Faire and factory observation tour in Shenzhen.



My impression of Shenzhen is a city of Blade Runner. It is a future city that has Asian chaos. There are so many tall buildings decorated by unnecessary LEDs.
Mr. Takasu is a conductor of our tour. He has much interest in Shenzhen. Tour people are economics or IT researchers, and individual makers like me.

Stylish waterfront is like fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. There are fashionable shops and palm trees that might not be there naturally. The place where Maker Fair has been carried out is also close to the water front. I exhibited musical robots at the invitation of the organizer, Seeed Studio.

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We have a large electrical town called Akihabara in Japan. Electric Town of Shenzhen is said to be 30 times larger than Akihabara.
Electric Town is located at Huaqiang North. Unfortunately, while Akihabara is adjacent to Ochanomizu (musical instrument town) and Jimbocho (Book town), Huaqiang North is not led to those towns. There are no Anime figure shops and Maid Cafes.

There are hundreds of buildings that have dozens of shops. Some buildings are connected to each other and forming a maze. Maybe this is a trap to make sure visitors buy something before they find exit. LEDs are so cheap, maybe that's why every tall building is illuminated by LEDs.

The tour also visited some factories and venture companies outside Huaqiang North. We visited Seeed Studio factory. They make electric modules for small lots. So individual maker, like me, can order what he/she wants.
Seeed supports individual makers and accepts interns. So it might be fun to live in this town. Only bad thing is food is too hot and spicy for me.