Three decades of documenting China
I admit also to knowing little about the reform programs underway so seeing Shenzhen for the first time in 1987 was quite a shock. It proved so different to what I had observed over the previous days of travel within China. It was then I started to realize the significance of what was underway, about what had been launched at the end of 1978 and how the initial experiments at reform and opening-up were mostly happening around the border areas with Hong Kong. This was partly through easier access to hard currency, business expertise and worldwide connections via a major international container port.
Returning to Scotland in August 1987 China was firmly in my mind, I just wanted to learn more, to discover what was really going on for as I said, there was at that time little awareness of the foundations of change then being laid down in coastal Guangdong. I desperately wanted to return but for reasons such as finance and available time it felt then almost impossible.
