A visitor takes a photo of a model of an armored vehicle at Shanghai Urban Planning and Exhibition Center yesterday.

 

An exhibition about China's industrial development opened yesterday at Shanghai Urban Planning and Exhibition Center, featuring over 1,300 items, including photos, artefacts and a collection of notes and industrial guidelines written by national leaders.

 

The story begins with the Guantian Arsenal established by the Red Army in 1931 and runs up to the staggering achievements of the present day — lunar probes, airliners, aircraft carriers.
 

 

Many items are being exhibited for the first time, including a group of photos of the detonation of China's first atomic bomb in 1964. Ten photos record the mushroom cloud after the explosion at Lop Nor Desert.

 

Shanghai is highlighted in the exhibition, including a photo of Chairman Mao Zedong's visit to Shenxin Textile Factory No. 9, the country's largest at the time, in January 1956.

 

Photos of the Shanghai wristwatch, Forever bicycle and Butterfly sewing machine are also on show. They were the three must-haves for newlyweds in the city in the 1970s.

 

Visitors can also learn how the first pile of the Baosteel Group, China's first major project of reform and opening-up, was driven in 1978.

 

Models of domestically developed aircraft, rockets, high-speed trains, armored vehicles and limousines are there for all to see. A model of the world's largest ship elevator at the Three Gorges hydro project is one of the centerpiece exhibits.

 

The exhibition organized by Shanghai Archives will run through November 29.