大潮起珠江 | 深圳特区，诞生于1980年的奇迹

作为中国的第一个经济特区，深圳是中国改革开放的标志。从1980年正式建立至今，深圳已经从一个贫困的边陲渔村，发展为集聚制造、金融、科技行业的一线城市。 

这座毗邻香港的沿海城市，见证着中国改革开放的历程。深圳的崛起展现了改革先行者的勇气，也凸显了过去几十年间中国整体发展成就。

在1978年底，中国宣布改革开放之际，深圳只是中国南方广东省的一个贫穷渔村。根据深圳市政府和世界银行的数据，1978年，以农业为主要产业的广东省人均GDP只有370元（53.6美元），远低于当年全国平均水平156美元。同年，香港人均GDP已经达到3924美元。

Forty years after its establishment as China's first special economic zone, Shenzhen has emerged as a symbol of the country's reform and opening-up. It has transformed from a fishing village to a sprawling industrial and financial megacity.

Widely dubbed as a "miracle," this coastal city next to Hong Kong not only boasts strong manufacturing capacity and leading innovation, it represents China's efforts in the past several decades to pursue development from scratch.

Before China started opening up its doors to foreign investment and transferring its planned economy toward a market economy starting 1978, Shenzhen was a small village with only 330,000 residents.

Guangdong Province is one of China's richest regions now, but back in 1978, with agriculture as main industry, Guangdong's GDP per capita was only 370 yuan (53.6 U.S. dollars at today's exchange rate), lower than the country's average 156 U.S. dollars in that year, according to data from the Shenzhen government and the World Bank. In the same year, the GDP per capita in Hong Kong was 3,924 U.S. dollars.

The early years of growth were not easy after the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949 from the ruins of the World War II and a civil war with Kuomintang. It stumbled through famine and an unsuccessful "Great Leap Forward," and then a decade of devastating Cultural Revolution (1966-76).

The country was mainly a planned economy similar to that of the Soviet Union. There was little business contact with the West. And the average living standard was far behind the developed world in the 1970s.

With the huge economic gap, many local inhabitants flooded to Hong Kong as illegal immigrants, to pursue better income. Official records show that about 150,000 Guangdong Province inhabitants left their hometown to Hong Kong before the reform and opening-up.

习仲勋是广东改革开放的主要开创者和重要奠基人之一。1978年4月，习仲勋被中央委以重任，南下主持广东省委日常工作，他关注到贫困造成的人口外流问题，决心做出改变。

他的计划得到了邓小平的支持。同年，邓小平推动中国改革开放，同意给予广东更多的决定权和自由，让广东“先走一步”。

经过广泛调研，1980年8月，全国人大常委会第十五次会议作出决定，批准在深圳、珠海、汕头、厦门设置经济特区，并通过《广东省经济特区条例》，宣告经济特区正式诞生，深圳成为新中国第一批经济特区中的第一号特区。

之后，深圳迅速以低廉的土地出让价格、降低关税、简化投资程序等优惠政策迅速吸引了第一批来自香港和澳门的投资者。

没过多久，深圳的经济就呈现了飞速发展。1985年，深圳的GDP达到了39亿元，是1980年的14倍。

深圳经济特区的成功不仅仅在于经济发展，更打破了当时对发展市场经济和对外开放的疑虑。

1984年1月，邓小平同志视察深圳后，亲笔题词“深圳的发展和经验证明，我们建立经济特区的政策是正确的。”

此后，中国继续扩大改革开放，逐步形成了从南到北的沿海经济开放带。深圳，也发展为拥有2000多万人口的现代化国际都市。作为中国第一个经济特区，深圳于2019年再夺“第一”，成为中国第一个特色社会主义先行示范区，它的精彩，未完待续。

20世纪80年代的深圳蛇口工业区（资料照片）。新华社发（深圳博物馆图）

Xi Zhongxun, father of Chinese President Xi Jinping, took the position of the Party head of Guangdong Province in April 1978. He was concerned about the population outflow caused by poverty and determined to make a change.

Xi Zhongxun's plan was supported by the Party leader Deng Xiaoping, who initiated China's reform and opening-up in the same year. He agreed to give Guangdong more autonomy to "take a step forward" than the rest of the country to develop economy and export business.

After a wide range of local surveys, four cities – Guangdong Province's Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou and Fujian Province's Xiamen – were chosen as the first "special economic zones" to establish export businesses. Shenzhen was the first to kick off, officially announced in 1980. The other three followed in the following two years.

Later, Shenzhen attracted investors – the first group was from Hong Kong and Macao – with its low price for land leasing, tariff reduction and simplified investment procedures, which were unique preferential policies at that time when most inland of China had not opened to overseas investment.

It did not take long for Shenzhen's economy to take off – its GDP reached 3.9 billion yuan in 1985, 14 times of that in 1980.

The success of Shenzhen broke the doubts over whether China should turn from planned economy to market economy and encouraged the central government to further open up and develop the whole east coast line.

After witnessing Shenzhen's dramatic change during his first visit to the pilot city in 1984, Deng wrote in his inscription for Shenzhen: "Shenzhen's development and experience prove that the policy of establishing special economic zones is correct."

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