I did the HK to Shenzhen train ride in the late 90’s. Once we had cleared immigration, we decided to walk to our hotel. The city was gridlocked. With empty buses. A young boy tagged on to our group. His only English was “Welcome to Shenzhen, have a nice day.” This sentence being followed by an outstretched hand. Despite being asked to leave us alone (in Mandarin) repeatedly, he stuck with us until we got to the hotel - top marks for tenacity.
Whilst in Shenzhen, we went to a restaurant that was obviously very popular - with officials - judging by the number of black Audis parked outside. The table cloths were beautifully laundered, starched and ironed. But the had large holes in them. The food was wonderful with a lovely spicy Szechuan influence.
