It's been 10 years since China joined the WTO, a landmark event in the process of China's opening-up to the outside world. Despite great concerns both in China and in other member states about the challenges China would face and those it might bring to other members, the worst-case scenario did not happen. On the contrary, China's membership has proved to be positive both for the country and for the rest of the world.
If you want to learn how China's export engine works, check out the Canton Fair.
February 1978: The State Council points out "China has to make a big stride" to increase the nation's foreign exchange, which marks the beginning of China's foreign trade strategy.
Zhuozhou is a small city 60 kilometers southwest of Beijing. I learned about the town not because it was home to emperors, or their tombs, but due to a farmer who knocked on my door when I was about 9.
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."
Looking back on 30 years of retailing, it is difficult to fathom that China would emerge as the face of a global retail revolution. It was a time when China was just shaking off the shackles of a planned economy and the retail sector was strictly regulated. In other words, it was a different time and a different era.
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.
During the 1980s, one of the major seeds of change sprouting from China's new market economy was the all-new motoring industry.
Life is one never-ending rehearsal at this year's Shanghai Biennial, which puts the creative process under the microscope, Zhang Kun reports.
Dadawa, the first Chinese singer to gain international acclaim back in the early 1990s, will give a concert at the Shanghai Grand Theatre on Oct 28.
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Raymond Zhou
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Chen Weihua
