The roar of the engines of the Air China Boeing 747 carrying China's President Xi Jinping home has long faded from the skies over Manchester, leaving Britain and its leaders to contemplate the new dynamic that is the link between the two countries.

Relations between the two powers, for decades a rollercoaster of highs and lows, have changed dramatically as a result of Xi's four-day state visit at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Behind the extraordinary images of state carriages, formal state banquets, parades and honor guards and carefully staged photo opportunities with the great and the good, a real change has taken place.