奈雪の茶 (华润万象天地店）Nai Xue Cha at Wanxiang Tiandi - Shenzhen

Living less than 30 minutes from the border to mainland, I can't remember the last time I had a day trip to mainland China.  Mainland always give me the image of old, dusty, dirty, poor and just very run down.  So, I rejected my friends numerous times when they ask me to go to China with them.  Until now...that is.  Been seeing some nice photos of food and restaurants in IG and decided it's time to give China a try.  For my first visit to Shenzhen in years, we picked one of the biggest and finest mall to go to, as I refused to stay outdoor in the foggy dustry air and refused to walk on the street.  I don't have any fond memories of being in China.  Had to find a place that resembles the old China as little as possible.  Came to The Mixc at the Gao Xin Yuan station (Hi-Tech Park station). It's right outside of exit A.  Anyways, once we crossed the China border, the air was already very dusty.  So, we quickly went into one of the many chain cafe call 奈雪の茶 to grab a quick drink.  The mall is very big and pretty.  Very modern and very much like the high end malls you would find in Hong Kong.  The only difference is that there weren't too many people, the shops are big and many open area as if they have unlimited space to waste, which is a good thing.  Hong Kong is just too small and everything is too tightly packed together.

The image of old China I have is sooooo different.  Seeing the place immediately made me feel so much better about the trip.  At least I know I won't have to worry about dirty washroom.

Ordered a strawberry cake and a black super tapioca cake.  Also an orange tea.

The cake looks cute but they really don't taste that great.  Two cakes and a drink came to a total of 68RMB, not cheap for their living standard.  Saw a poster that was hiring a part time at 15-30RMB per hour.  This little tea set will cost them more than 2 hours worth of working...

Taste-wise, they are horrible.  The cake is stiff and bland.  The cream is salty in a weird way.  The strawberry flavor is very fake.  The tapioca is very hard.  The tea was OK.  All in all, I think it's good for a picture, but I won't specially go back for their drinks or cakes again.  I'd be pissed to eat this if I worked 2 hours for it.

China is not google friendly, so it's hard to pin point the location.  But anyways, the mall 萬象天地 is at point Shop 1 on the map below:

Chi