From the editor: Bringing you the news for 30 years

It's not often that the birth of a newspaper makes news around the world.

But China Daily did. And so it was on June 1, 1981 that the first edition rolled off the presses to the accompaniment of what seemed a global media drumbeat.

There was good reason: The steadily-growing stream of tourists, businessmen, consultants and "foreign experts" making their way to the country found themselves almost isolated from the outside world - and didn't know much of what was happening in the country, either.

In today's plugged-in world, it might be difficult to comprehend that news in English was then at such a premium.