MCDONELL: And these jets might well come in handy for wealthy Chinese because there’s another thing about them. Surveys show that 75% of the country’s super rich have either left in order to get hold of a foreign passport or are seriously considering it. This is seen as an insurance policy in case things go bad in China.

Of course, if you don’t have a private jet to get you out of here there’s always the pointy end of any commercial aircraft.

And if the wheels fall off China’s great leap into affluence, this will be the first place it hits.

In Guangdong, the southern province that sees itself as world’s factory, they produce just about everything, but some see future social, political and even economic turmoil threatening it all.

What then for the production lines which were once fields, the farmers who’ve become workers and the taxi drivers who’ve turned into millionaires?

YAN ZHIHUI: “I always believed I’d be successful.

MCDONELL: “Why?”

YAN ZHIHUI: “I was self-confident when I was young. When I was a kid I stood out – I was different from the others. So I believe this success was pre-destined”.

MCDONELL: Thirty four year old Yan Zhihui runs Jincheng electronics with his business partner Sun Jinyong. He says he arrived in Shenzhen 13 years ago with around $150, that he drove a taxi for two years, then opened a fast food restaurant and finally got enough money together to jump into manufacturing. Becoming a boss has transformed his life.

“I’m not sure this is polite, but can I ask you what your personal wealth is?”

YAN ZHIHUI: “Probably a few million yuan”.

MCDONELL: “Is this very successful in China?”

YAN ZHIHUI: “No, I just stepped into the lower end of the middle class”.

MCDONELL: Yan Zhihui may see himself as “middle class” but if your personal wealth is, like his, between 600,000 and a million dollars that goes a long way in southern China. Yet the world is changing and it’s possible that the good times won’t last forever for China’s manufacturers.

The towers of Shenzhen literally sprang from nothing in recent decades to create a city which owes its wealth to China’s export boom. But employees here are becoming less and less likely to work for peanuts, meaning that other countries can now undercut China in terms of production costs so what will this mean in the long run for Shenzhen’s businesses?

YAN ZHIHUI: “Although both labour and material costs are increasing we can improve our production techniques. To simply keep trying to reduce workers salaries is not the way to go”.