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.

Milestones

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.

Avid reader who uses China Daily at work

Zhang Xinhong, 49, a leading light in China's public relations industry, says he has established a strong relationship with China Daily over the last three decades.

Trailblazers of reform

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.

A bold vision that changed China

Thirty years ago, Deng Xiaoping set out an economic vision which seemed astonishing - a 70-year policy to transform China into an advanced economy. However, the targets for its first 30 years have already been exceeded and China's economic achievements are probably the most extraordinary in world history.

Growing pains ... and gains

When I first saw China Daily in June 1981, I mistook it for a foreign newspaper. And it still puzzles me how my English teacher at a high school in the small town of Nanyang in Henan province, about 1,000 kilometers from Beijing, learned about the newspaper and had become one of its earliest subscribers. Unlike today, news and information then traveled at snail's pace.

High-speed, sustainable development model

One of three new districts in Beijing, Shunyi has been designated an airport economic zone and modern manufacturing base, and has been introducing various industries in recent years to help its economy.

Olympic fame propels it to greater glory

The Shunyi district, just 30 kilometers northeast of Beijing's center, calls itself the "grain store of the capital" because of its large amount of farmland and resources.

The enterprises that reduced a government headache

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.

Largest employer needs a level playing field

China's broad private sector provides more than 90 percent of the 800 million jobs in the world's second-largest economy. That includes 237 million created by domestic private firms in urban areas, 18 million created by foreign-invested firms and 470 million rural jobs (including 210 million created by township enterprises, self-employed businesses and other rural private entities).

Resilient growth engine crucial to prosperity

The remarkable growth of China's private economy over the past three decades has been crucial to making the Chinese economy the world's second largest.

Going through the roof

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.