1992

Deng’s Southern Tour

From January 18 to February 21, 1992, Deng Xiaoping visited southern cities including Wuchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shanghai and made important remarks. He proposed that China seize the opportunity to accelerate progress of reform and opening up to lift the economy to a new level. His remarks laid the ideological foundation for the path of socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics and injected new impetus into the country’s reform and opening up.

Shanghai Leads Breaking the “Iron Rice Bowl”

In March 1992, workers of Shanghai Diesel Engine Factory signed a labor contract. Employees of the factory transformed from permanent workers to contract workers, effectively losing the “Iron Rice Bowl” offered by state- owned enterprises. As the reform of state- owned enterprises deepened, China began to combine the basic system of socialism with the development of a market economy to build a socialist market economy.

First Mcdonald’s Opens in Beijing

On April 23, 1992, the first Mcdonald’s in China opened on Wangfujing Street in Beijing. It was then the world’s largest, with 700 seats and 29 checkout counters, and attracted over 40,000 diners on its first day of operation.