Yuan Geng：the founder of the Shekou  Industrial Zone

Shekou Industrial Park before China adopted reform  and opening up policy

Shekou Industrial Park in 2015

Yuan Geng (left) inspects Shekou  Industrial Zone in 1980

 Yuan Geng, born in 1917,  is the founder of the Shekou  Industrial Zone and a reform  trailblazer during China’s reform and opening up strive.  On July 2, 1979, groundbreaking for the Shekou Industrial  Park (SIP) commenced, kicking off the country’s reform  and opening-up. Over the 14 years of  his tenure, Yuan Geng witnessed his SIP grow from  an industrial park with an  investment of HK$60 million to an industrial kingdom  worth over 20 billion yuan  by the 1990s. At that time,  Shekou’s per capita gross  domestic output was US$50  million, on a par with the  Four Asian Tigers. More significantly,  Shekou served as a window  for the country’s economic  reform and opening-up,  navigating economic development with a brand-new  pattern and path. Yuan also established  China Nanshan Development  (Group) Incorporation, China’s  first Sino-foreign joint venture  implementing a shareholding  system, and China Merchants  Bank, the first joint-stock  commercial bank on China’s  mainland, and initiated  the founding of Ping An  Insurance Company of China,  the first joint-stock insurance  company on the Chinese  mainland. Yuan is still proud  of his many other creations:  China International Marine  Containers (Group) Co., Ltd.,  CSG Technology Holding  Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Chiwan  Wharf Holdings Limited, and  China Nanshan Development  (Group) Incorporation. In 2016, Yuan passed  away in Shenzhen at the age  of 99. Yuan was awarded  with the title of the “the most  beautiful striver” for his contributions in China’s reform  and opening up.