From a quiet fishing village to a modern hi-tech metropolis − the Cinderella fairy tale in Shenzhen never ceases to amaze everyone who has been there. Where once 30,000 rural people went about their basic daily lives in the small county seat of Bao’an, today shiny glass office towers kiss the clouds and innovative people chase the Chinese dream.

China has been setting up economic and technological development zones (ETDZs) to boost knowledge-based and technology-intensive industries for the past decades. Typically, the governments offer preferential policies and incentives to these zones.

“Internet Plus” in recent years, has gained traction among universities, research institutes and even the corporate world. The Internet, enabling fast and interactive data transmission in real-time, has facilitated the openness and sharing of knowledge, the commercialization of academic achievements, and the development of platforms for academic exchanges.

The rapid development of the new energy vehivles (NEVs) industry has injected new momentum into China's economy. New technologies and the trend of being smart will further fuel the development of the industry.

King Deer Group, a private Chinese company specializing in cashmere manufacturing, has been doing business in Africa for the past 24 years. Its Madagascar factory remained unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic and continued to support people's livelihood during this challenging period.

Despite the havoc and global investment contraction caused by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, China was a honeypot for global investors in 2020 and even created a record. Its paid-in foreign direct investment (FDI) reached a record high of 999.98 billion yuan ($154.4 billion) in 2020, up 6.2 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on January 20.

The year 2020 was a turning point in many ways. A pandemic tested our capacity for international cooperation. Our impact on the changing environment became more urgent. That was demonstrated in alarming evidence of worsening global warming and, for the first time, human-made materials outweighed all life on Earth. And the two major countries in the world, the United States and China, appeared to be locked in geopolitical confrontation, with commentators fearing they are destined for war, or at least a decoupling of their massive economies.

The mobile Internet has changed the everyday life of the Chinese, with the revolution in payment methods being a major highlight. QR code-based solutions have replaced cash payments in most consumption scenarios and facilitated transactions beyond borders and imagination. Third-party payment service providers like Alipay and WeChat Pay have become a new industry with more new players joining in.

Thanks to her smartphone, Liu Qing can now earn 500,000 yuan ($77,200) a year. Just six years ago, such income was a distant dream for the female farmer, who was raising her children alone in her hometown in Gengwei Township in Shuyang County, Jiangsu Province in east China. Due to the lack of local job opportunities, her husband had to move to the city for work, where he just earned an annual income of 20,000 yuan ($3,088). But now, like many other local farmers, her dream has come true, thanks to a powerful weapon: succulents.

Since the Chinese government proposed to vigorously advance ecological civilization and reverse the deterioration of ecological environment in 2012, China's energy sector has made historic headway in its development, and the proportion of clean energy in the country’s overall production and consumption has increased rapidly. An energy production system driven by multiple engines has taken shape in the country, and the energy consumption structure has been transforming speedily towards being clean and low-carbon.

For the past 10 years, Li and his wife have made a living by running a small noodle restaurant comprising only three tables. Li left his hometown as a teenager in 2008, and worked on odd jobs in various regions before opening this 10-square-meter store in 2011. At about 4 a.m. every morning, he gets up to prepare the dough and make the noodles. When he finishes, customers begin to show up. Normally, he serves customers till around 8 p.m. or a bit later. Sometimes Li envies those who can finish work earlier. He admits that running a small business is not easy, but the upside is more flexibility: he can leave the post whenever there are urgent family affairs to attend to.

Throughout my school life, phones offered one significant benefit: a means of communication, via either text or call. Typing out a message, "back in the day," required quite the skill set, i.e., understanding the code of the numbered buttons. Three taps on the number 6, for example, would produce the letter "o." Phones were a means of convenience, but barely a means of life. Fast forward to 2020 and board a train in pretty much any city in the world, there will be one accessory nearly every passenger on board will be holding, clasping onto even, watching, or tapping: their mobile phone.

Chen Fu, an associate research fellow with the Aerospace Information Research Institute, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, studied the changes taking place along the Yangtze River Economic Belt by comparing satellite images of lights across the region. "The lights are visibly turning brighter over the past five years," he said, adding that the increase in brightness usually stems from more active production and human activities.

China's gross domestic product figures for the year 2020 were released on Monday. They revealed 2.3% growth over the past 12 months, overcoming the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic which has caused severe economic disruption worldwide and leaving as the only major economy to register growth.