The All-round Contract System, which was initiated 40 years ago in a small village called Xiaogang, freed people’s minds and awoke the sleeping land. And it raised the curtain of China's rural reform.

Beijing Air Catering Co.,Ltd. was established on April 10, 1980. It was the first China-foreign joint venture company in the country.

On August 26, 1980, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress gave approval to the establishment of a special economic zone in Shenzhen.

In 1980, China’s first color TV production line was built and put into trial production at the state-owned Tianjin Radio Factory.

On December 11, 1980, Zhang Huamei, a 19-year old Wenzhou girl and button seller, received China's first individual industrial and commercial business license – No.10101 from the Administration of Industry and Commerce in Wenzhou.

The first CCTV Spring Festival gala made its first debut on the New Year's eve of 1983, when people were sitting together to enjoy the reunion and to wait for the New Year.

On 18 November 1984, Shanghai Feilo Acoustics Co. was founded and issued 10,000 shares at 50 yuan per share. And that’s the first publicly issued stock in China since 1949.

Hu Guohua, an engineer from the former 207 Institute of Ministry of Aerospace Industry earned the name of “the First Chinese Patent Man” by obtaining China’s first patent application number.

On December 1, 1987, a public auction of land use rights was held in Shenzhen. It was the first land auction after the establishment of the New China.

On November 12, 1987, the American fast food chain KFC launched its first China outlet in the bustling area of Beijing's Qianmen Street.

On May 10, 1988, with the approval of the State Council, the first high-tech industrial development pilot zone in China, the Beijing New Technology Industry Development Pilot Zone, was established.

On October 31, 1988, China’s first expressway, Shanghai-Jiading Expressway, opened to traffic. As of the end of 2017, China’s expressway covered 136,000 kilometers, ranking first in the world.

China’s first exchange stock, Shanghai Stock Exchange was established on November 26th, 1990, and began its operation in mid-December. Shenzhen Stock Exchange was open for trade on July 3rd, 1991.

What the billboard shows is China’s first Internet service provider InfoHighWay. In spite of the failure of InfoHighWay, many other Internet companies thrived, which have made tremendous changes in China.

On April 7, 1998, Beijing Haixing Kaizhuo Computer Co. and Shanxi Huaxing Import and Export Co. conducted the first electronic transaction via China Electronic Commerce Center e-commerce system.

On October 31, 2000, China's first self-developed navigation satellite, the Beidou Navigation Experiment Satellite, was launched at Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

On November 10, 2001, the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) reviewed and adopted China's decision to join the WTO in Doha, Qatar, by consensus.

At 9 a.m. on October 15, 2003, China's first manned spacecraft Shenzhou-V was successfully launched, which made astronaut Yang Liwei the first Chinese in space.

On December 22, 2007, Hexie, China's first domestically-produced train with a top speed of 300 kilometers per hour, was completed.

In August 2008, the 29th Olympic Games was held in Beijing. Beijing, the host city of 2022 Winter Olympics, has formally begun to prepare for the event after taking over the Olympic flag.

The Shanghai World Expo 2010 was held from May 1 to Oct 31.

The first aircraft carrier, Liaoning, commissioned into the People's Liberation Army Navy, was formally on active service in Dalian at 10 am on Sep. 25, 2012.

China’s manned deep-sea submersible Jiaolong created a new record of reaching 7020 meters beneath the sea in the Mariana Trench test area of the Western Pacific on June 24, 2012, successfully attempt the world’s first 7000-meter dive.

Shanghai Free Trade Pilot Zone, which is also the first free trade pilot zone in China’s mainland, has been formally established on Sep. 29th, 2013.

The proportion of added value of the tertiary sector in China exceeded that of the secondary industry for the first time in 2013, with the rate of 46.1%.

Launching ceremonies of Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect program are held in Shanghai and Hong Kong at the same time on Nov. 17, 2014. They closed their first deal with Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd and Cheung Kong.

The first World Internet Conference kicked off in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province on Nov. 19, 2014.

From October 19-23, 2015, The National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week was held throughout the country, with the main venue located in Zhongguancun Technology Park in Beijing.

The National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone in Guizhou, the first National Big Data comprehensive Pilot Zone of China, was officially founded on March 2, 2016.

The first Chinese-design Supercomputer Sunway TaihuLight with domestic processor chips won the Supercomputing Champion on June 20, 2016, and has been declared the world fastest.

China successfully launched the world's first quantum science satellite Mozi on August 16，2016.

The 11th G20 summit was held in east China's Hangzhou city on Sept. 4-5, 2016.

The IMF approved the yuan as the fifth elite currency on October 1, 2016, to join the special drawing rights basket, which is a foreign exchange reserve asset that includes the US dollar, euro, yen and the British pound.

The C919, China's first homegrown large passenger plane, made its debut flight on May 5, 2017 in Shanghai, a breakthrough in the country's innovation and manufacturing drive and a change to the landscape of the global civil aviation market.

The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation is held in Beijing on May 14-15, 2017.

China’s First Internet Court established in Hangzhou on August 18, 2017.

A total of 48 companies will set up branches in Xiongan New Area, its management committee said on September 28, 2017. China announced plans in April to establish the Xiongan New Area, a new economic zone about 100 kms southwest of Beijing.

The two cloned macaques, named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, were produced at the non-human-primate research facility under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) at the end of 2017.

Local authorities in Beijing released China's first guideline on road tests of autonomous motor vehicles on December 19, 2017, taking the lead in filling the legislative blank about road tests of driverless cars.

China on April 14, 2018 unveiled guidelines on supporting the southern island province of Hainan to deepen reform and opening up, with details on turning it into a pilot free trade zone and creating a "free trade port with Chinese characteristics."