Development and Opening of Shanghai’s Pudong

Pudong lies on the east bank of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. Before reform and opening-up, poor transport left Pudong’s economy and society far behind those of Puxi on the west bank, and locals used to say, “Better a bed in Puxi than a house in Pudong.” In the 1990s, to broaden opening and spur economic growth along the Yangtze, Deng Xiaoping repeatedly urged the development of Pudong. In April 1990 the Party Central Committee and State Council formally announced the development and opening of Pudong, applying the policies of economic and technological development zones and of certain special economic zones, and it became an important window of China’s opening. The Pudong New Area successively set up national-level zones including the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone, the Jinqiao Export Processing Zone, the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone and the Zhangjiang High-Tech Park. The Nanpu and Yangpu bridges, the Oriental Pearl Tower and Pudong International Airport were built in turn; skyscrapers rose in Lujiazui, with the Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai Tower becoming new landmarks, and many Chinese and foreign financial institutions settled in Pudong. After Deng Xiaoping’s southern tour in 1992, development and opening picked up pace. Over more than thirty years Pudong rose from farmland and old districts into a modern new district, its gross regional product growing from about 6 billion yuan in 1990 to over 1 trillion yuan. In 2013 the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone was inaugurated in Pudong. Pudong’s development drove growth in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta and became a symbol of reform and opening-up and a miniature of Shanghai’s modernization.