Shenzhen Coworking Overview, Which Is Right For You?

Are you a tech entrepreneur in Shenzhen, China? Wondering what are some good places to work? Or maybe you are a new parent (I.e. Western husband) and need some quiet place to work (yes, I am talking about myself here!)

Today, we will cover as many coworking places in Shenzhen that we can think of. If we missed one, please contact us and let us know!

This more of a startup coffee shop than a formal coworking space. They now have 2 locations in Shenzhen, in Nanshan district.

Locations are:

Ground Floor, North entrance of Yuanxing Technology Building, No.1 Songpingshan Road, Nanshan District, Shenzhen

Another coworking space that was first in Beijing and now in Shenzhen is Tech Temple. In the south of Futian, it is another massive space that spared no expense! It opened in Feb 2015 and has been growing ever since. This is the traditional coworking space model, where you need to pay to be a member and get a hot desk or your own dedicated office room.

Tech Temple has just opened a new location in Nanshan – Jon sent me a few pics, uploaded here:

A new kid on the block is TUS Park. It is in the Shekou IT park and focused more on the hardware scene having a hackerspace in side. It is built like a race track, with the lines painted around the perimeter of the space.

In an old factory building, it definitely gives that more trendy Western-er style of a space that is a converted “old” into “new”.

Currently not open, but I need to include on the list. I was a partner in this venture, and it was the first coworking space in Shenzhen. We opened in 2011 in High Tech Park – right next to a brand new subway station.

It was a great experience, and helped spark the community and many startup events. Maybe one day it will be back, check back here for updates!

This opened about the same time as Shenzhen Team did back in 2011. It was the original office for Seeed Studio that then turned into a hackerspace for hardware gear heads.

It’s been around the longest and always works hard to offer events and support for budding entrepreneurs and makers.

Started by 2 IBM professionals, this space is catering to the hobby maker in Shenzhen. More focused on the local Chinese market, they do speak English and welcome foreigners with open arms.

TEchspace.cn

Beta Cafe

Maybe you won’t consider this a coworking space, but they are trying to compete in the space. REgius is everywhere around the globe and you can buy the city pass (for only Shenzhen), or a China / Hong Kong Pass (so you can go to their centers across China and Hong Kong), or a global pass to get in anywhere.

There are at least 6 centers in Shenzhen and more opening regularly. If you get the “hot desk” there are normally 2 to 4 “pod desks” where you can setup your workstation. The other options is to rent a fixed desk in an office room at one of their locations.

Again, this may not be considered coworking and more virtual office and office center. But they do have some shared lounge area and a wide network of locations across Shenzhen.

I have had a membership years ago and would coordinate with the team to meet at different locations where we would work from the lobby or sometimes get a bit of time in the meeting room area.

My friend Deborah has done a great job at keeping this operation top notch. The have locations in other parts of Asia, but I am only familiar with Shenzhen. You can rent out a space in the more traditional fixed office area, but the do have shared meeting rooms and other facilities.

Another early one that we had used for Startup Weekends back in 2012 timeframe. This is backed a bit by the government (not sure the exact relationship, and others in this list may be backed by government too I am not sure) and I went to visit it while it was still in construction in spring of 2012. A Very nice venue with a coffee shop are for anyone t come in to grab a drink or a meal. In the back they have the dedicated offices for tech startups.

It’s in the South part of High Tech Park, within walking distance to big corporate buildings such as IBM and Lenovo. So they have the location if you’re looking for a High tech address on your business card.

SimplyWork has been growing like crazy in Shenzhen! Locations all over the place, mostly in High Tech Park.

The “Techcrunch” of China – 36KR has a coworking space now in Shenzhen – in the High Tech Park as well. We had a Wechat training seminar there in December 2016.

I’d say more a hacker space, but a good spot in the center of Hua Qiang Bei

1 = Trouble Maker 2 = Huaqiang Plaza Hotel 3 = Huaqiangbei MTR Station Exit A 4 = Huaqiang Road Station Exit A 5 = SEG Tower 6 = Entrance Parking Garage 7 = Private Elevator to the 7th floor

Trouble Maker is located at:
Huaqiang Bei International Maker Center, 7/F Huaqiang Plaza Building, Huaqiang North Rd., Futian District, Shenzhen
深圳市福田区华强北路华强广场裙楼7楼华强北国际创客中心
The elevator entrance is next to shop number H1D007 (Oppo). From Shekou line, Huaqiangbei station, exit A, walk into Huaqiangbei in the south direction. You will find the entrance in the LED building after 100 meter.

OCT (Overseas Chinese Town) is a popular creative spot for many entrepreneurs as well as artists and designers. Martin opened up an office and has a few people to share it with.

I stopped by with Laurent once on a Sunday – it has a great little view of some OCT area and a friendly well lit atmosphere.

A reader Philip updated me with a couple more options below (I have not verified these locations, but sharing to help the internet!)

cassie@hibcsz.com – Futian. similar to Executive / Regus style. Bit cheaper maybe.

http://www.cowork.cn – fantastic place and reasonably priced. not great English speakers.

SIMPLY WORK – have 4 locations in Hi Tech park. You must know them, so I guess you are not a fan. (I updated this since then, just hadn’t updated this coworking space blog post in a while!)

Did we forget a coworking space? Let us know by contacting us. We want o make sure we cover all of them. You can also leave a comment below to share your feedback about some of the spaces on this list, or any other ideas and suggestions to make this resource better.

Maybe you have an office already and don’t need to rent a desk. No problem! You can also rent the space to host you tech event or launch your startup!

Many of these places love to have events – and will work with you to make it fun and effective for your company and brand image.

Some examples of events in Shenzhen at coworking spaces are

I love the shared office concept. In today’s shared economy world with Uber and Airbnb, it makes sense to have the same for office space. Yet I am not sure if Shenzhen is the best place for a true “central coworking space hub”. Why? It is so spread out. Maybe I am a bit bitter still that Shenzhen Team coworking space didn’t get going but I do want to share some of my thinking behind it.

Rent is still relatively low in Shenzhen so many people just rent an extra bedroom as their home office. Sure, they are lonely, but if they want to network, they can go to a night networking event.

Many people live all across this massive city. If you look at a map of Shenzhen – it will take you over 1 hour to get from one side to the other! Futian is central, but a bit expensive. A lot of entrepreneurs are tight with their money – which I agree is important.