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.
More than 800 people gathered at the Great Hall of the People on Tuesday to celebrate China Daily's 30-year journey from an eight-page black/white newspaper to a global media group. 
China Daily marks 30th birthday
China's English language newspaper China Daily celebrated its 30th birthday in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday.
China's English language newspaper China Daily celebrated its 30th birthday in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday.
In the 1980s, when Li Zhongjian saw an expensive overseas-made cigarette lighter, he had the foresight to figure out how to make it in his home city of Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province. Li formed a company - something very rare in China then - to make the lighters, initially for the domestic market.
Wang Yang, a 46-year-old college teacher, clearly remembers the time he lived in a small apartment in the university. Similar to the college dormitories of today, there was usually only one shared kitchen and a toilet on the same floor.
Shao Pei and his wife Zhou Min, both only children, are considering moving to another neighborhood in Beijing with a higher population of children. That's because their only daughter, nicknamed Xiaoxiao, is turning 2 years old soon and will need to make friends. The couple, in their early 30s, live in a high-end apartment building in the capital's expensive Central Business District, densely populated with young elite white-collar workers but few children.
Zhou Qiyuan does not like shopping. His distaste for shopping spans many years. "There was nothing to shop for in the late 1970s and early 1980s," says the 65-year-old Beijing resident. "It was all about getting coupons, standing in long queues, choosing from the few goods that were available and, more often than not, being bullied by salespersons."
Jiang Zhikang's foray into China's fledgling stock market in the early 1990s was not only risky but required great patience. "I lined up at the small trading counter for a whole night in order to buy the stock subscription certificates,?Jiang, 62, says. "I thought that owning stocks may be better than just putting my money in a bank account.?
In 1983, Zhen Zhicheng, then 6 years old, was free as a bird in the steep mountains of Hubei province, where his parents, both Beijing natives, had been living since 1970 alongside tens of thousands mobilized from around China to work at the No 2 Automobile Plant in the small town of Shiyan.
Qi Faren's name is linked with China's first satellite, its first unmanned spaceship and first manned spaceship, leading some to say his biography would be an abridged version of China's space history. Like his given name suggests -- "new things begin to emerge" -- he has created many historic "firsts".
If you ask any Chinese person what their nation's proudest sporting achievement has been over the past 30 years, Olympic success will be the most likely answer. China's passion for glory and improvement reflects the official Olympic motto: Swifter, Higher and Stronger.
Before last year's Shanghai World Expo, Beijing Zoo was known for its endangered indigenous species: giant pandas, Siberian tigers and the Tibetan gazelle. Pretty soon it may include another beast altogether: flying men from Latvia ricocheting around vertical wind tunnels.
Any middle-aged Chinese man who wants to appear fashionable these days would have heard of two labels - Pierre Cardin and Septwolves. During the 1980s and 1990s, these two labels injected some color into Chinese menswear that was dominated by gray, blue and black.
Four music festivals and a marathon concert made this year's May Day holiday the busiest ever for Beijing's pop and rock fans. Each of the events featured dozens of acts and drew thousands of people.
Looking back at 30 years of sports in China, it is easy to see how the times have changed. From a generation of sportspersons who were solely dependent on State support and had to toil hard to make an impact on the global stage, China has a new generation of confident young sport professionals who have not only made a name for themselves but are proving to be excellent brand ambassadors for the country.
After the chaotic "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), during which more than 300 Chinese movies were banned, filmmakers could not wait for a new era to begin. Taboo films were screened again and audiences flocked to movie theaters with great passion.
Lu Peng is widely considered a pioneer of the local art market, having published an art magazine, organized exhibitions and other projects - not all financially successful. In the 1980s, he established the Art and Market magazine, the first of its kind in China, and was its first editor-in-chief.
The successful hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing dispelled notions that many foreigners like Mark Surman had about China. Surman, who has been studying political science at Peking University for the last two years, is one of the 40 million foreigners who are studying Chinese now.
A bunch of congratulating messages sent by foreign government officials, ambassadors, news agencies, international organizations and so on.
Over the past 30 years, China Daily has developed into a strong all-media group with 12 print publications, a national portal website with eight sub-websites, around-the-clock news and information services on three mobile platforms and 14 applications and products on wireless terminals.
In 1983, Cao Dewang decided to lease the Gaoshan Glass Factory from his village in Fuqing, Fujian province. His aim was simple: feed his family and the families of fellow village workers, and provide them with education.
During the last 30 years, the health service system in China has made several significant strides and improved the overall health condition of urban and rural Chinese citizens. Though much of the focus in those days was on public health and preventive treatment, it also had some shortcomings. An inherent flaw of the post-1980s period was that healthcare became more of a fee-for-service available mainly to those who could afford it. There was also a constant churn of medical personnel from the rural to the urban areas, contrary to what was envisaged by policymakers.
In July 1978, Hong Kong businessman Zhang Zimi approached the Dongguan government, in South China's Guangdong province, with a radical idea: to start making handbags for the Hong Kong market. Zhang's deal called for him to inject HK$2 million and provide the designs and raw materials.
Among China's first drivers were newspaper photographers, who took advantage of the faster form of transport to follow fire trucks and zoom to action hot spots. Veteran China Daily photographer Wu Zhiyi and former China Daily employee Chen Xiong can remember Beijing in the 1980s when driving a car in the capital was a sheer delight. There were sunny blue skies, very few cars and no traffic jams.
Board any of China's high-speed trains and you'll step into a clean and comfortable cabin worthy of airlines. More important, the trains will whisk you to your destination almost as quickly as propeller-driven aircraft. These trains cover the 1,069-km journey between Guangzhou and Wuhan in about three hours, while the 120-km trip between Beijing and Tianjin is done in half an hour.
Rong Jikai, a retired senior professor in Beijing, has been overseas to "dozens of places" such as Japan, Thailand and Nepal -- but always for work and never as a tourist. But since his retirement, Rong, in his 80s, and his wife Xiao Shuqin, in her 70s, are trying their best to make up for this.
Journalism educator Li Xiguang, who is in his early 50s, still regrets the fact that he was denied a chance to become a reporter nearly 30 years ago. The 1982 Nanjing University graduate's application to a national newspaper was turned down by the school authorities after they decided the student had been way too "liberal" and "slack in discipline".
At 2:28 pm on May 12, 2008, an 8.0-magnitude quake struck Sichuan province. Towns were leveled and villages were buried, as mountains crumbled into rivers and dammed them to further threaten residents.
"The biggest change that Hong Kong has experienced since the handover was to remain unchanged," says Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, 65, president of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
One of Bian Jiang's most vivid memories of Beijing in the 1980s was the long queues of people, waiting in the late autumn chilly wind, to buy large amounts of cabbages and sweet potatoes to take home.
At every event held by Green Earth Volunteers, Wang Yongchen, 57, founder of the environmental organization, asks her participants to describe how the rivers have changed in their hometowns. The younger participants, often in their 20s or 30s, always come up with answers that the rivers are no longer the way they were. Most of them are either dark, smelly, or in some cases completely dried up. "That's why I care so much about the rivers in China. I'm always worried about where we will get water from if such trends continue," says Wang, a journalist-turned-environmentalist.
It was the opportunity to trailblaze that lured American Brian Linden to China in 1984. That was why he jumped at the chance to come to the country as a Beijing Language Institute student, he says, as most restrictions on foreigners' movements in the country had just been lifted. "We truly were among the first foreigners who could break away from the major cities and explore China's hinterlands," the 48-year-old says. And, he says, he reveled in interactions with the local people.
The image of a long queue outside the small campus bookstore lingers in the memory of writer Zhao Lihong. He was a student at Shanghai-based East China Normal University from 1977 to 1981 and Chinese literature was his major. "Students and faculty would line up each morning for new books, even before the bookstore started business," Zhao, 60, recalls. "Books were always in short supply."
China's foreign affairs in the first half of 2011 were characterized by several multilateral summits in which the country has played a prominent role. Among them are the recently concluded trilateral leadership summit involving China, Japan and the Republic of Korea in May, and the third summit of the BRICS bloc and annual Boao Forum of Asia held in Hainan province in April.
Pan Yingjie, the president of Shanghai Ocean University, can never forget the summer of 1977 when an examination changed his life. It was not the easiest of times for the 27-year-old Pan then as life seemed bleak after the daily toil at a rural fertilizer plant in Anhui province that was not only sapping his energy, but proving a health issue for his pregnant wife.
