When I first passed through Shenzhen 深圳 in 1985 just before crossing the border into Hong Kong, it was a collection of run-down shacks. I still had an unused entry on my current Chinese visa, which expires on Thursday, and I’ve been unwell all week and unable to contemplate a journey further afield. Shenzhen, fifteen minutes from Kowloon by high speed train seemed the obvious choice. Waste not, want not.

My, how it’s changed in the last 30 years! We arrived in the southern Futian 福田 district to be met by vast, empty boulevards populated by eerily silent electric cars. CCTV cameras follow you everywhere, Gileadesque. The buildings are vast with hubris and outwardly form shining examples of the best of a semi-planned economy. Shenzhen is a city of superlatives, one of the fastest-growing in the world.

Shenzhen has 14 theme parks and 20 actual parks and is known as China’s first garden city. Nestled among the corporate plantings were the blousy architecture of the Civic Centre and the Childrens’ Palace.

Meandering around Lianhuashan 蓮花山Park suited our mood well today, and we encountered exhibits in a bougainvillaea exhibilition and families flying their kites on the way up to the statue of Deng Xiao Ping 邓小平 modern promoter of the city, at the top of the hill which provides these panoramas.The park filled with families this afternoon, speaking not Cantonese but Putonghua, which I found striking.

Encouraged in its development by China, there is so much to see in Shenzhen.There’s an awful lot to see and I’m sure we’ll pop back over the border from time to time.