Waterfront bistros. Fine dining. Carefully tended public spaces. Parks and wide plazas. Early evening. A mostly older generation. Enjoying a brisk stroll, a few jogging, others walking their dogs. Suitably attired. Smart casuals or proper sports kit.
There’d been a steady upwards trend in prosperity as I’d headed eastwards. But there was a sophistication here on a scale I’d not encountered before. Admittedly I was close to Wuhan’s business and financial district, but that just seemed to reinforce comparisons with London’s upmarket Canary Wharf.
A few laps of the lake in my improvised running kit. Luxury apartment blocks and and skyscrapers. Like so much of China, there was a scale here. Huge. But not intimidating. Proportionate.
Passed a few runners doing the opposite circuit. Nod and a smile. But otherwise lost in thought. I liked China. Both the country and its people. Not the first flush of a passionate romance. More an enduring love. Warts and all.
