马可·波罗大家都十分熟悉，当他第一次来到中国时，便被中国的辽阔富庶深深震撼。

在《马可·波罗游记》中，他盛赞了中国的繁盛昌明；发达的工商业、繁华热闹的市集、华美廉价的丝绸锦缎、宏伟壮观的都城、完善方便的驿道交通、普遍流通的纸币等等。书中的内容，使每一个读过这本书的人都无限神往。

而后数千年的闭关锁国，使我们渐渐落后于世界发展的潮流，直到一个新的历史机遇到来，中国重新走向世界的舞台。

解读中国工作室推出《中国改革开放的故事》系列短片，记录中国改革开放的故事。让我们跟随麦克·伍德的视角，一起走进那段对中国而言意义非凡的历史。

《中国改革开放的故事》第二集：走向世界

改革开放四十年以来，中国的变化是有目共睹的。

在过去的四十年里，中国共产党领导的人民共和国已经成为一个消费天堂。如今，在大城市街道上，你可以看到来自世界各地的商品。

Over the last forty years, the Communist led People’s Republic of China has become a consumer paradise. Today in the streets of its great cities, you can see all the goods of the world on show.

那么这样的巨变是如何产生的呢？先跟随小编看看四十年前的广州吧！

这里是广州，坐落于珠江一侧，自古就是中国的商贸重镇。罗马人、阿拉伯人、波斯人纷至沓来通商贸易。但是1949年后，中国开始改变了此类与全世界做生意的做法。如果四十年前来到这里，你看到的将是设备老旧的衰败工厂，基础设施落后，路上几乎没有汽车。一位当地的中国共产党官员说，广州已然变成“珠江三角洲边疲惫的耄耋老人”。

Romans, Arabs and Persians traded here in ancient times. But after 1949, China turned its back on making money. When you came here 40 years ago, what you saw was a skyline of decaying factories with old-fashioned machinery, poor infrastructure, almost no cars in the streets.

从广州这个充满希望的地方开始，邓小平开始制定振兴整个国家的计划，这时，一位重要的合作者出现了。

在小组讨论发言里面，习仲勋就说，广东那么困难，经济那么落后，主要还是上面统的太死了，中央统的太死了。如果广东，中央给点权给广东，放开一点，不要统的那么死，他还打个比喻，假如广东是个独立的国家，让我集体来弄，没有人干预我的，我几年就可以把他搞上去。邓小平就肯定习仲勋，就是要杀出一条血路来，叫他要杀出一条血路来。

In group discussion, Xi Zhongxun said that Guangdong is so poor and its economy is so backward. The main reason is that the central government is too rigid, they controlled the area too rigidly. If Guangdong, if the central government delegates powers to Guangdong, let them do, don’t be so rigid. He also made a comparison, if Guangdong was an independent country, if we could govern Guangdong collectively without intervention, I could make its’ economy develop rapidly in several years. Deng Xiaoping totally agree with Xi Zhongxun. You must do this, no matter what it cost, asking him to slash a path with their blood.

一番探索之后，中国历史上第一个改革开放特区出现了。

1979年1月31日，就在北京京西宾馆召开十一届三中全会后不到一个月，提议实现了。中华人民共和国历史上第一个外商投资合同。实在让人惊叹，这里曾经什么都没有。看看现在的壮景。

邓小平对习仲勋说，中央没有钱，可以给些政策，你们自己去搞，杀出一条血路来。我们就把它叫做特区吧！

So on the 31st of January, 1979 - barely a month since the plenum meeting in the Jingxi Hotel in Beijing, the deal was signed. The first foreign investment contract in the history of the People’s Republic of China. And it is amazing to think that then there was nothing here at all. And just look at it now.

“Central government has no money” Deng said to Xi, “But we can devise a policy that will allow you to forge ahead,Let’s call it a special economic zone”.This was totally typical of Deng Xiaoping’s approach. They set up these four experimental zones near Hong Kong and Macau.

很快，这样的变化引起了全国的关注，一场伟大的历史转变开始了，一位位抓住机遇的勇者开始崭露头角。

章华妹 华妹服装辅料公司创始人

那时我们已经把小小摊在这几家门口摆了。他们就过来告诉我们，就是说我们现在可以，国家有新的政策，你们也许可以做生意了，领取一个营业执照，个体的营业执照。拿到执照以后 我真的很高兴，有了这张证，有了保证一样，对我们个体来说呢，是一个保证。

We already sold things in front of our house at that time. They came and told us that the country has new policies and you can do business now, you can get a business license, an individual business license.I was really happy after getting the license. The license was just like a guarantee. It’s a guarantee for individual business.

伟大的改革总是要面对许多质疑的声音，对此，原广东省委副秘书长陈开枝说到：

交锋就是两种思想的交锋，邓小平改革开放的思想，和原来受左的影响，和僵化思想的交锋。有些人又提出反和平演练为中心，有人又提出恢复阶级斗争，上海的《解放日报》《文汇报》，就发表了几篇评论员的文章，把小平的思想传下去了。但是遭到批判。所以他就谈想到只能到改革开放的前沿阵地来，给老百姓谈，把他的思想告诉老百姓。要真的发财，要全面的发财，你首先要解决敢闯敢干的问题，都说发展是硬道理。他还是对着深圳的领导讲。你们要大胆一点，你们要发展快一点。

It is the clash between two different thoughts. A clash between Deng’s thoughts of reform and opening up and the previous left ideology and the rigid economy. Someone opposed peaceful evolution. Someone proposed the resume of class struggle. The Liberation Daily in Shanghai and the Wen Wei Po published several commentator articles to disseminate Deng’s thoughts, but received severe critics. So he said that he could only went to the frontier of reform and opening up, talking with people and conveying his thoughts to people. If they really want to be rich, if they want to be rich in all fields, first they should be brave and innovative. Development is the only best choice. He also talked with the leader in Shenzhen, you must be braver, you had to develop quicker.

总而言之，改革的结果不负众望，如今珠三角的成就全世界有目共睹，中国的企业家也纷纷走向世界的舞台。

阿里巴巴集团天猫CEO靖捷说到：

1999年，阿里巴巴成立。这个名字，总让人想起“芝麻开门”的故事。芝麻开门，就是说我们怎么帮助中小企业经营。打开财富之门，通往全球，没错。或许你已意识到，阿里巴巴第一天就是一种全球化的象征，因为我们首个网站就是英文网站。

So 1999, that’s the time when Alibaba was founded. The name, that’s always linked to the story “Open Sesame!”. As open sesame, that means how we can, from very beginning, our mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. Open the treasure.

四十年前的改革开放直到今天仍在继续，中国走过了漫长的道路，并将继续前行，无论你生活在哪里，无论你是在美国、非洲抑或亚洲，你的身边一定会有中国商品。

第二集的故事到这里就结束啦！本集讲述了中国由改革开放走向世界的故事，本系列一共五集，欢迎持续关注哦～

更多精彩点击下方获得完整视频！