Nanshan seafood deluxe.

One of the biggest draw's of visiting any coastal city, or district situated fairly close to the sea, is the abundance of seafood and seafood restaurants. Visiting Nanshan district of Shenzhen is one of the rare opportunities for an in-lander to enjoy the freshest seafood the mainland can offer. Few people realise the difference a fresh batch of seafood can make versus a frozen and transported one.

Sure enough, further inland, seafood can be enjoyed fresh, but it will be at elevated prices not everybody is willing to pay. At Nanshan, freshness is the bare minimum you can expect, so we're spoilt for choice when it comes to how we want seafood to be prepared.

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Nanshan is one of the six districts which make up Shenzhen and is home of the Shenzhen High-Tech industrial park. Because of it's rapid development, the district is now one of the richest not just in Shenzhen, but in all of China. It's sub tropical climate means that it is permanently warm, and also very humid. This is something that entices people to eat fresh seafood!

Above, you can see the fresh platter of seafood comprising of scallops, clams, oysters, prawns, mussels and even squid. These are served cold and taste every bit as fresh as you could imagine. One thing was missing from this delectable selection of shellfish, and that would be the French Snails.

Fish roe served with mashed potato salad was an interesting combination.

Foie Gras with toast.

This is a beef stew served inside some bread. It's quite similar to Goulash you might find in places like Hungary.

Every province has it's own version of "Peking Duck", Shenzhen and Nanshan is no different. In this case, the main difference is the inclusion of red onions instead of spring onions. Otherwise the taste is fairly similar.

Most of you will know Shenzhen to be a bustling modern city that has experienced remarkable growth in recent decades. It's trans formative development was helped along by the liberalisation policies of the 1980's turning Shenzhen into the first and ultimately most successful, Special Economic Zone. The vast development of businesses here are superficially represented by a growing shoot of skyscrapers and modern buildings, but this, also supported by key trade ports which now have to deal with a larger influx of working people, making up up to 80% of the population of Shenzhen.

All these people will need access to food, and like the ancestors before them, the first place to obtain said food would be from the nearest resources available to them, in their case, the sea. The highly developed seafood cuisine here is a result of decades of increasing demand for seafood from the influx of people living and working here.

It's very satisfying to know that the dishes have been honed to be the best they can be with decades of experience.