The Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Chinese mainland's major bourse, turned twenty on Sunday. CCTV reporter Guan Xin takes a look at how the index has changed the way many Chinese people manage their wealth.

 

Shanghai is home to the world's second largest stock market in terms of market value. More than 2,000 shares are traded on the bourse, despite the market being relatively young at just 20 years.

Back on the market's opening trading day in 1990, there were only 30 shares, and just 49 deals were reached.

No one knows that early time better than millionaire Yang Huaiding, who is one of the earliest individual investors in China. At first, many people lacked confidence in shares in Chinese companies. They preferred to save their money in banks. But Yang was ambitious enough to invest his money. It was a risk that paid dividends and eventually made him a millionaire through stock investment.

At that time, a family with 10-thousand yuan was considered wealthy. Yang feared going to jail, because stock investment was considered speculation, and capitalism. Laboring with one's hands to earn money was still considered more honorable.

But Yang was reassured by the words of former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who pioneered the country's reform and opening up.