Lianhua Hill Park

Soh Kien Peng

5.0/5

Outstanding

My last visit to Shenzhen was in 2009, about 17 years ago. This time, I was in transit to Zhengzhou, arriving at Shenzhen Bao’an Airport at 01:25 hrs, with my onward flight at 12:25 hrs. That gave me a few hours to explore a nearby attraction.One advantage of Bao’an Airport is its free overnight Passenger Rest Area, open from 22:00 to 06:00. The lounge has comfortable sofas where passengers can rest. When we arrived around 2:30 am, there were still vacant seats for both my wife and me. The overhead lights remained on, which was slightly glaring, but we eventually managed to fall asleep.I woke up at 5:30 am, roused my wife, and we headed to the airport metro station in the basement. We decided to visit Lianhua Hill Park (莲花山公园), one of the nearest scenic spots from the airport. The fare was RMB 7 per person. We took the earliest Line 11 train toward Futian, transferred to Line 3, and alighted at Children’s Palace Station (儿童宫站). From Exit F1, it was about a 20‑minute uphill walk to the summit. The climb felt a bit strenuous after our short sleep, but it was manageable — certainly not as high as Mount Faber in Singapore.At the summit, a sweeping panoramic view of Futian District (Shenzhen’s CBD) unfolded before us, with skyscrapers stretching across the horizon. Shenzhen was once a fishing village before China’s late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping transformed it into a modern metropolis. The city holds immense significance as the birthplace of China’s Reform and Opening‑Up. At the summit stands a bronze statue of Deng Xiaoping, commemorating this transformation. His famous dictum — “Whether it is a black cat or a white cat, if it can catch mice, it is a good cat” — symbolized pragmatic reform. Standing before the statue, I felt fortunate to experience this historic site during my brief layover.We spent about an hour enjoying the park before returning to the airport. By then, the metro was packed with office workers, and we were squeezed inside the train.