In 2014 a camera crew came to Shenzhen to spend a week filming me for a China wide CCTV4 broadcast of a television show called “Foreigners in China”. They spent a week following me around as I ran my business NowShenzhen.com in China.
I had to speak a lot in Chinese and the video narration is in Chinese. Thanks to the magic of AI translation the English transcript is below. You can watch the video on YouTube and follow along with the English translation below.
Next up is "Foreigners in China"
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I came to this place last time, but it wasn’t open yet. Let me go check it out.
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Venturing into Shenzhen, he encounters a series of life challenges. We’re going to Hong Kong to eat Western food.
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Or, we’ll go to Hong Kong to buy some food and bring it back.
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Over 14 years, Manager Shen turned him from an exhibition participant into the "King of Teams."
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Now, I’m not afraid to talk to others or anything like that. It’s no problem. A small hobby has turned into a big career.
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See how he achieves success. "Foreigners in China" is about to make a spectacular appearance.
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Shenzhen Overview Zither Harp
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One, two, three
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One, two, three
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In a bar at a five-star hotel in Shenzhen’s Futian District, an American named Brent Deverman is nervously bustling about. The wine and knowledge-themed party he organized is set to start in just one hour. At this moment, his partners arrive together, making Brent’s expression even more tense. What exactly has happened?
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This is Shenzhen’s well-known wine and knowledge-themed event.
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The participants are foreigners from all walks of life.
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Such events are held once a month and are very influential among foreigners in Shenzhen. So, what makes it so special?
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Let’s go and experience it together. Hi, Brent, hello!
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Excuse me, good evening.
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Thank you, thank you. I see a lot of people have come today.
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Yes, a lot more than I expected.
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Way more than expected, yes.
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Yes, they all find it interesting.
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Would you like something to drink? Sure, great.
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Enjoying rich red wine and the smooth exchange of knowledge, more and more guests arrive. Amid casual conversations and an American-style party atmosphere, Brent’s nervous mood seems to ease a bit.
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We had a beer station set up, but the beer they brought had no fizz, so our members couldn’t drink it. That’s a problem. I need to communicate with them so this doesn’t happen again next time.
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So, how did you resolve it at the time? Did you need some emergency solutions?
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We worked with the hotel to substitute another beer, but it wasn’t as good.
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This wine and knowledge-themed party has been running in Shenzhen for 11 years. Despite setting high standards from the start—using five-star hotel venues and charging a 380-yuan entry fee—foreigners still flock to attend. Now, it has become one of Shenzhen’s most influential large-scale themed parties.
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Why do people like this kind of event?
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Because
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We can just
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Meet other foreigners. Chinese people call it making friends. For us foreigners, it feels happier to connect like we did back home.
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We all really like China, but sometimes, we need to be with other foreigners because we share the same problems.
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At the event, the organizer Brent Deverman also doubles as the host. He tells us that setting up a raffle is both to liven up the atmosphere and to give back to the attendees. It’s also a marketing tactic.
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I feel the atmosphere is very harmonious. Everyone is very friendly, exchanging business cards and getting to know each other. You could say that.
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It’s a
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Great platform.
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Brent Deverman in Shenzhen
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Has lived here for 14 years and successfully organized thousands of parties, big and small. Among the different party formats, the one constant is that Brent is always the focal point at the scene. Watching him navigate conversations with ease among the crowd, it’s hard to imagine that 14 years ago, he was known as a shy, introverted "homebody."
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At the beginning, I had a pretty introverted personality. But I realized that if I wanted to run this company, I needed an extroverted personality. So, I changed a lot. Now, I’m not afraid to talk to others or anything like that. It’s no problem. So, this is a huge change.
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So, what exactly changed Brent? The story starts in 2000. Fourteen years ago, Shenzhen, as a frontier of China’s reform and opening-up, attracted many foreigners seeking opportunities. As one of them, Brent, newly arrived, soon encountered difficulties. He found that venues catering to foreigners were mostly located in the bustling Futian and Luohu districts, while the area outside the city center where he lived was far less convenient.
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When you first came to Shenzhen, was it hard to find food you were used to eating? Yes.
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It was quite difficult to find these things. Yes, during my first year in Shenzhen, I didn’t even know there was a place called Shekou. Shekou has a lot of foreigners and many Western restaurants. But I only found out about it after a year. At that time, there was no subway, so going to Shekou was very far and expensive. So, we rarely went there to eat Western food. We might have to go to Hong Kong to eat Western food or buy some food to bring back.
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Hong Kong, just across the water from Shenzhen, was the place Brent frequented most for shopping and dining. The familiar bars, Western food, and wine culture often evoked nostalgia. So, every weekend, Brent would gather a few friends to roam the streets of Shenzhen, searching for authentic Western restaurants and bars, carefully recording the information he gathered. Within just a year, Brent became a "living map" of Shenzhen in the foreigner community.
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This is both a hobby and work. So, when I’m on the street, if I see a new restaurant or company, I definitely have to go in and check it out to see if my members would be interested.
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Nowadays, some foreigners say he’s the "Mayor of Shenzhen" because his influence is so great that, in their minds, he knows everything—where new places open, where ceremonies are held, where the best food is, and where the fun spots are. He knows it all.
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"If you have a problem, find Brent." This phrase quietly spread among the foreigner community in Shenzhen. Brent strongly felt that too many of his foreign friends faced the same life challenges as he did. When they met, the most common topics were which restaurant had the best steak, which made the best fish, or which brewed the best coffee. Gradually,
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Brent came up with an idea.
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Thank you.
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At that time, we had a lot of needs, and I thought others must have these needs too. So, we felt that if we discovered something, we could tell our friends, and they’d know where to buy this thing or where to eat this dish.
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So, we wanted to solve our friends’ problems because this is...
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It would help them a lot.
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Setting up a consultation platform to share the information he knew with foreigners in Shenzhen and those planning to come to Shenzhen, Brent shared this idea with three friends who shared the same interests. They hit it off immediately. The four young men began enthusiastically discussing the functional positioning of a website. They unanimously decided that since it was a hobby, they’d start by organizing a party each month, bringing together most of the foreigners in Shenzhen for both relaxation and information sharing.
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Why did the few of you think of starting a website like this back then?
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We’d go out every day to see what new restaurants or fun bars were around. Then we thought, we’ve seen so many bars that are new and pretty empty. So, we said, we have a lot of friends, we can bring our friends to these bars, and we can choose the music ourselves, DJ ourselves, or whatever. Then we can
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Make the bar more fun. Making things fun was the original motivation for Brent and his friends to build the website. The four young men worked their day jobs, and after work, they’d stay in their dorms, busy building the website. In August 2001, after 48 days of relentless revisions, Shenzhen’s first English-language information media website, ShenzhenParty.com, was born.
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When you first started doing this, building a website and sharing this information with everyone, what kind of reactions did you get from your friends around you?
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A lot of people told me, "I like your website, but you should add this, or you should add that, or you should change this."
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At that time, Brent built the website purely out of interest. He never even thought about making money from it. But soon after, an incident changed his initial intentions.
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YoYo Television Series Exclusive
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As the website progressed smoothly, three partners chose to leave at the same time.
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They didn’t want to invest money, so they thought this
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I couldn’t
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Support it alone.
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How would they overcome this困境?
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"Foreigners in China" continues with excitement.
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Today, I’m with Brent Deverman.
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We’re attending a wine event together. Brent says he attends events like this at least once or twice a week.
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But I noticed he’s not like other friends who
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Fully enjoy the party. Instead, he’s always busy. So, what is he busy with?
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Okay, okay.
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Hello, Brent.
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I see you’ve been busy. What are you working on?
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I’m busy taking photos. When I attend these events, I need to document them. I might report on my website what I ate and whether it was good or not.
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If it’s at a party.
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YoYo Television Series Exclusive. After two years of development, ShenzhenParty.com played a significant role in Shenzhen’s foreigner community. On May 1, 2003, Brent and his friends were organizing a party with over 50 participants as usual. Little did he know, a rare opportunity was approaching.
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Then they said, "Next month, we’re opening a bar at our hotel. Would you like to host a party at our hotel?" We thought about it and felt this was a good opportunity. They had live music, which I thought was interesting because Shenzhen didn’t have a good venue for live music.
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It turned out that the venue setup, event planning, and professional DJ at this party caught the attention of an important guest—the PR manager of Shenzhen’s Venetian Hotel. He immediately decided to entrust Brent’s team with organizing the opening event for the hotel’s soon-to-open bar. However, faced with this sudden good news, the young team found themselves in a dilemma.
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We had a problem: we didn’t know how to charge for planning events. We had never charged before. So, how much should we ask for? We didn’t know. We just made a rough calculation of how to charge. Also, when working with a hotel, you need a contract and so on, which we didn’t have. So, the hotel ended up drafting the contract, and it was fine. That event was very successful, with over 100 people attending.
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The success of the Venetian Hotel party not only brought Brent his first pot of gold through the website but also boosted the website’s reputation among Shenzhen’s foreigner community. However, just a few days after this high, Brent’s career hit a low. In 2000, the disposable camera company he worked for was overwhelmed by the flood of digital products in the market and went bankrupt. Brent lost his job as a result. To make ends meet, he started looking for work everywhere.
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The maintenance of the website had to be put on hold. I might have to shut down my website or something because if I don’t work on it, it’s too big now. I can’t do it alone. It needs investment. If I don’t invest, it might not survive.
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Just as Brent was struggling to find a job and feeling lost, an email from a website user seeking help sparked an idea.
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I thought, so many people already know about my website. I don’t even know these people, but they’ve used it and seen it. So, I felt there should be a market.
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I should be able to make money. The almost mythical "Shenzhen speed" gave Brent immense confidence. In just six years, Western restaurants and bars had sprung up everywhere around him. Entertainment and leisure venues for foreigners were abundant. If he could provide this information to clients, allowing them to choose freely without leaving their homes,
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The website would definitely have development potential. It’s a huge change in Shenzhen’s growth. We’re sitting in Shenzhen’s CBD now. When I first came, there was no CBD. So, when the CBD started developing, Shenzhen became very lively. Many new foreign companies entered Shenzhen, so foreigners came, and they wanted a good quality of life.
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However, when Brent excitedly proposed to his three partners to register a company and turn ShenzhenParty.com into a commercial venture, the three partners didn’t see a future for the website. Not only did they not support him, but they also chose to withdraw at the same time.
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They didn’t want to invest money, so they thought I could handle it on my own.
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The withdrawal of his three friends left Brent somewhat discouraged, but he still firmly believed the website would create commercial value. To reach more clients, he started running around Shenzhen’s streets every day by himself.
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We were the first English website in Shenzhen, so all the foreigners knew about it. Even many Chinese people knew about it.
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So, we’re not afraid. Do you feel like you’ve already established a certain status?
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Yes, exactly. No other website or platform has been around this long or maintained such high standards.
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Please don’t hesitate to like, subscribe, share, and support Mingjing and Diandian channels with tips. What truly boosted Brent’s confidence was the rise of China, this Eastern dragon, capturing the world’s attention. In 2000, the number of foreigners entering China reached 10.16 million. Since then, this number has been increasing by 10% annually. The successful hosting of the 2008 Beijing Olympics alone saw over 48 million foreign entries and exits in that year. As one of China’s most vibrant cities, Shenzhen attracted a large number of foreigners to study, work, invest, and do business. Facing this growing demand, Brent keenly sensed a business opportunity.
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After 2008, development sped up. At that time, Shenzhen quickly became an international city. Foreigners could accept this city. The subway system was completed, so you could take the subway to many places. So, now, opening a restaurant or something is much easier to succeed. I think many foreigners want to live in Shenzhen now.
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So, how should the future direction of the website be planned? Beyond gatherings and entertainment, what are the greater needs of clients? Brent had to start thinking deeply.
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I started thinking from their perspective. If I were in a foreign country with no friends or relatives, just arrived with no money, and I could find a website to help me, make friends, find a job, find a place to live, and even have activities to join, I would feel incredibly convenient.
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He was the first person to create this website in Shenzhen. He worked on it every day, doing a little bit for his website. After a few years, the result was that it grew big. He met a lot of people, and many people knew about his website. As you said, it’s becoming more and more professional.
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To understand common needs, Brent set up a survey questionnaire during user registration. Feedback showed that most foreigners were concerned about practical life issues like where to find a dentist or where their children could go to school. As the research deepened, Brent began posting extensive life information on the website—schools, hospitals, entertainment, fitness, lawyers, and more. At the same time, he had to spend a lot of time convincing businesses to promote their unique services on the website to earn a small income.
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At first, we only organized events. Then we realized we could post classified ads. After doing classified ads, we knew we should have a database of restaurants and so on. Later, there were many different events hosted by others, so those events also needed to be on our website. So, every year, this changes.
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It’s precisely because of Brent’s dedication that not only in Shenzhen
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You wouldn’t understand
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The website needs maintenance.
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The vast amount of information needs constant updating. Sometimes I collaborate with bars or negotiate with hotels, so I need to understand the difficulties in these industries and know how to solve them.
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On the solitary journey forward, challenges abound. How will he face them? "Foreigners in China" continues with excitement. Today, Brent came to Shenzhen’s Futian District in Overseas Chinese Town. While seemingly strolling, whenever a bar or hotel opens, he goes in right away to introduce his website’s content and purpose to the owners. To attract clients to his website,
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He even offers businesses a free one-month advertising slot.
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Don’t you feel tired?
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I do feel tired, but I find it fun. I think these challenges are great. I like to give myself challenges. I like to give myself challenges.
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This is a new restaurant. They make Peking duck, but unfortunately, they’re still in preparation, and only the owner can taste it. He said we can’t eat here today. What’s your name?
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My name is Steven.
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Steven, OK. I’m Brent. I run a website called ShenzhenParty.com. I might have forgotten to bring my business card, but I’ll call again. I want to feature some new restaurants on my website.
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And then
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A month ago, I came by to see you were preparing this restaurant. So today, while I was in Huanglan Coast, I thought I should come check if you’ve opened yet.
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Right now, our restaurant hasn’t opened yet.
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We’re still in the preparation phase.
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And everything we’re doing now is for internal testing among our own staff.
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Is that so? Like a simulation, I understand.
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Yes, and we’re not open to outside guests yet.
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So, right now, it’s like this every day.
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OK, so when will you officially open? It should be at the beginning of August.
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Beginning of August, right? OK, great. OK, so your email is here, right? And your phone number? I’ll have my assistant contact you, and we can help promote your place on our website. Can I take a look around?
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You can, but it might not be very convenient to open it up right now.
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It might not be convenient to show you around. Oh, is that so? OK, OK, OK, fine. Because after we officially open,
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We want to present the best to you. What you see now isn’t excellent; it’s just normal.
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OK, OK, fine, fine. Next time then, right?
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Next time, after we officially open to the public. The hotel manager politely declined
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Brent’s request.
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Scenes like this
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Seem to be something Brent is already accustomed to.
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Even though it’s late at night,
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He still has to keep moving forward,
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Seeking new opportunities.
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Thank you, everyone.
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Doing this work
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Is actually much harder than just organizing events at the beginning.
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Yes, going from a hobby to running a company has changed a lot. I didn’t expect so many changes, but I also didn’t expect Shenzhen to change so much. So, my website has changed along with Shenzhen, becoming a better city and a better website together. Walking the streets and alleys,
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It seems Brent works harder than others, but in his eyes, being able to move forward and breathe together with China’s fastest-developing city, he always feels lucky.
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Thank you.
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So, what do you think has been your greatest achievement in these 13 years?
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My greatest achievement in these 13 years is that I can do what I love and learn what I want to learn. I think that’s very successful.
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With the arrival of the 4G network era, people’s demand for information has become increasingly broad. For Brent, this is undoubtedly another major challenge. Shenzhen is a young city, offering endless possibilities to dreamers like Brent.
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And Brent continues to persevere,
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Persisting in turning his efforts into the success of his dreams.
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Brent, what kind of content does your website have now?
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Now, there’s a lot of content.
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It started with just events, but now you can find jobs,
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Rent houses, and more.
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Oh, and shopping and education. The content is really comprehensive.
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It’s very comprehensive now. Every year, we add more features.
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I’ve noticed that Brent’s website is no longer just about organizing parties. It now covers various aspects of daily life, especially meeting the needs of foreigners living in Shenzhen. Over 13 years, Brent’s website content has become increasingly rich, and he says he will continue to expand into new areas. Behind these changes is the rapid rise and development of Shenzhen as a city. Brent, I want to eat the most authentic and affordable Cantonese food tonight. Do you have any good recommendations? I do have a good recommendation.
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We have a Cantonese food section, and this restaurant, Lei Gai, should be pretty good. Can we have dinner together tonight?
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Sure.
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OK, great.
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Subtitle Volunteer: Yang Qianqian, YoYo Television Series Exclusive
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