A new museum devoted to telling the story of China's 30 years of economic reform will open in Shenzhen on December 18.

The new wing of Shenzhen Museum will be the only museum in China to focus on the history of reform and opening up.

Shenzhen was China's first Special Economic Zone, and the first Chinese city to implement the policy of reform and opening up. According to the Shenzhen Culture Bureau, the opening of Shenzhen Museum's new wing will be an important part of nationwide celebrations of the 30th anniversary of reform and opening up.

The 32000 square meters building, constructed in the city center at a cost of 2.4 billion yuan, will house three floors of exhibits on ancient and modern Shenzhen and folk culture but will be mainly devoted to the history of the reform period since 1978.

The main exhibition, on the History of Reform and Opening up in Shenzhen, will present the history of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, which began on December 18, 1978, and is regarded by historians as the meeting which launched China's reforms.

The exhibition will use pictures, sound and high-tech equipment to deliver a multimedia representation of Shenzhen's development during the reform period. Among more traditional exhibits will be the hammer used in the first ever land auction, and the car and furniture used by Deng Xiaoping when he visited Shenzhen during his 1992 tour of south China, considered another landmark in the reform process.

(China.org.cn by Ma Yujia October 6, 2008)