The counter-culture roots of skateboarding seems very much at odds with China’s enduring authoritarianism but since arriving in the late ‘80s there are now an estimated 50,000 skaters in the country. That’d be a healthy scene for most nations, not so much when you’ve got a population of more than one billion. Rock up to the Woodward Beijing, Ezone Sk8 Park in Fangzhuang, or the Sk8 Warehouse, and you’ll see a thriving skate scene and riders with incredible natural talent.
In 2011, Transworld Skateboarding also put Shenzhen as one of the ten best cities to skate in the world saying, “It has as proven enough of an untouched marble goldmine to serve as the epicentre of the budding Republic’s skateability.”