Looking Back on Those Years in Dongguan

In the 1990s, the spring breeze warmed the land, and the Pearl River Delta was full of unpredictable change. It still bore the closed-off atmosphere of the 1980s, while also facing the shock of the information explosion that came with the new millennium. People say that if you’re in the right place at the right time, even a pig can fly. They’re not wrong: the 1990s were the best time to make a fortune. But when an opportunity presents itself, can everyone get in on it? Does everyone have the capital to unlock the door to wealth?

Take pager and mobile phone shops, for example. Everyone knew they were profitable, but how many factory workers on an assembly line could afford to open one?

Among people now in their fifties, how many are still living with regret over the opportunities they missed?