Credit: New China TV
A light show involving 300 illuminated drones has taken place in the Port of Guangzhou in southern China to mark 40 years since China initiated its economic reform and liberalisation.
The drones first formed the year “1978” and then counted up to 2018, before spelling “reform” and “opening up”.
The seven minute demonstration ended with the drones forming the shape of a rocket and the Guangzhou Tower.
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The event celebrated China’s Open Door policy, the 1978 economic project initiated by then Chinese Premier Deng Xiaping, which sought to liberalise China’s internal markets and encourage foreign investment.
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The policy was the beginning of China’s rapid economic growth in the last two decades of the 20th Century, and its self-confidence in the 21st.
China’s latest economic programme is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an inter-regional investment and infrastructure project that the country claims will cost approximately US$900 billion.
Guangzhou, the venue for the light show, was named by Alphaliner in September 2018 as the third fastest growing port in the world, after Colombo and Singapore.
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