CHINA’S move from a closed society to one of the world’s most productive and prosperous nations is mind-boggling for many, and is a good model for other countries to emulate.

One of the best places, however, to research the Chinese model is the public museum in the city of Shenzhen, where the country’s history comes alive in photos, videos, old electronics, appliances and machinery, and even a minibus that the then president travelled in. You will also see a life-size statue of the man who started the journey of introducing the old Communist nation to the world — Deng Xiaoping — standing beside the old limousine that took him around on official business.

According to documents provided by the museum during a tour by journalists from Latin America and the Caribbean, Deng proposed Shenzhen as one of China’s first economic zones, and in 1979 the ‘magic’ started.

“The construction of the Shekou Industrial Zone located at the foot of Hu La Mountain, Shekou Peninsula, officially started. Like a spring thunder, the mountain-cutting blasting marked the new era of reform and opening up and modernisation of construction in China… By the end of June 1985 more than 60 buildings of 18 levels and above had been built in Luohu District, making it a famous commercial centre,” the document — ‘The History of Reform and Opening Up in Shenzhen’ — said.

The migrant workers who came from all over China to assist in the construction of the city have been given their rightful place in the museum, which has life-size statues of them holding their tools that helped to start the ‘new China’.

In 1993, after the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the reform and opening up and modernisation of China stepped into a new phase, and Shenzhen took the lead in completing the basic framework of the socialist market economy.

Today, Shenzhen, which is home to several multimillion-dollar companies, stands tall as a beautiful and progressive city in China.

— Pete Sankey