It used to be riches to rags in the 30 years of Mao?s rule. Then came Deng Xiaoping with his maxim: ?Let some people get rich first? and ?It is glorious to be rich?. Thirty years after Deng turned socialist China on its head, China abounds with rags-to-riches stories. Some of them are really amazing. Take Zheng Zhuohui. Owner of the Jinli Enterprise Group, South China?s biggest manufacturer of engineering machinery components, Zheng diversified into real estate five years back, and is today one of the most successful builders in Shenzhen. Unlike other millionaires in Shenzhen, the 53-year-old is a son of the soil, and his life mirrors the radical changes Shenzhen has undergone.

Zheng grew up as the oldest of six children in one of the villages which now form part of Shenzhen city. Bordering Hong Kong, Zheng?s village could receive radio broadcasts from there, conjuring up visions of a prosperity the villagers could barely imagine.

Many of Zheng?s childhood friends took the plunge and swam across illegally to the forbidden city. Many drowned, including Zheng?s best friend, but neither these deaths, nor the shootings by the coast guards, stemmed the tide.

For Zheng, however, that was a closed door: his father was fiercely patriotic. Besides, he himself hated taking risks.

Mao died when Zheng was 24, and within a couple of years, words such as ?reform? and ?opening up? started being heard in Zheng?s village. By the time Zheng turned 30, individuals could start their own business. Then a father of three, Zheng earned 42 yuan in a state-owned factory, while his wife slaved on their plot of land. Desperate to increase his income, Zheng bought a second-hand tractor for 200 yuan, and after his factory shift was over, started transporting sand from the river bed to the many construction sites which had come up by then to change the border villages into what would ultimately be the city of Shenzhen. The work was backbreaking, but the rewards enormous: 40 yuan a night. Soon, this became his main occupation, as the factory found out and dismissed him.

Full of promise

Chosen by Deng Xiaoping to herald the country?s ?opening up? to Western capital, Shenzhen was at that time like the Wild West, lawless, swarming with reckless fortune-hunters. Smuggling was the easiest route to riches, but Zheng, thanks to his father?s strict upbringing, carried on with his business, buying more tractors, then bulldozers...

As the world?s manufacturers descended on Shenzen, China?s first special economic zone, Zheng saw life as full of promise. Only one thing marred his vision: his father?s disapproval of his son?s deviation from the correct path, from state worker to private businessman. The old man died before he could see his son make his first million in 1990. What would he have said had he been alive in 1998 to see his beloved Communist Party choose his son, then owner of South China?s biggest engineering machinery component manufacturing company, as a representative of the National People?s Congress? Zheng was the first private businessman to be so honoured.

Zheng?s village was in Bao?an County. Today, Bao?an district is on the border of Shenzhen?s SEZ, a place where farmers come to try their luck, escaping a poverty Zheng had never known. Perhaps Zheng?s construction company employs them: the construction industry is the biggest employer (and exploiter) of migrant labour in China. Jinli has just finished setting up an ?Australian style? housing estate in Bao?an district. The first 600 apartments were sold in exactly four hours, with the next 600, still under construction, already booked. Zhen now has one dream: to become an entrepreneur like Panasonic, ?who leaves behind rich cultures or spiritual significance to later generations?.