They also identified a pressing need to conserve Hong Kong’s wildlife – some of it endemic – as urban areas encroached upon the countryside. Wildlife within the parks counts some surprising members – including king cobras, pythons, porcupines and wild boar – and the territory is crucial to the hundreds of thousands of migratory waterbirds travelling through each year.

Earlier reasons for preserving the vegetation hadn’t always been so high-minded: maintaining tree cover was seen as crucial for the protection of Hong Kong’s water catchment areas, vital for guaranteeing abundant supplies in case pumping water across long distances was not feasible. More recently, proposals for building new housing on the fringes of the country parks have provoked some heated discussion.

Whatever the reasons for the existence of Hong Kong’s country parks, they are glorious, and in many respects, world class. Take a late afternoon in mid-summer atop Wong Leng in Pat Sing Leng Country Park, when rainstorms have washed the skies, the light brilliant and crisp. To the east, the eight peaks (or fairies, as legend has it) of the Pat Sing Leng range descend to the still waters of Plover Cove Reservoir; to the distant north Shenzhen’s skyscrapers burn orange with the dying sun; to the west lie countless grass-covered hills and wooded valleys, punctuated by abandoned paddy fields and ghost villages. This isn’t unusual: this is what Hong Kong looks like. Go and see for yourself.