wo years ago, I was still a student of senior high in Chongqing, a city located in the southwestern part of China. In those days, Chongqing was far away from being considered as an attractive tourist spot. However, the number of tourists swarming in Chongqing keeps amazingly increasing these years due to the video clips of the city shared by the youth on the Internet, such as stunning night views or delicate architecture designs. It is when I return to Chongqing during vacations that I find the once empty boulevards are now flooded with travelers.

Besides, Chongqing is widely known as the “mountain city” of China, which literally refers to its mountainous landscape. Today, Chongqing is far more than this. The mountain hills are now dotted with skyscrapers and a range of well-designed buildings. In addition, over 8000 bridges stand on Yangtze River and Jialing River, which is also the reason why Chongqing is sometimes called “the City of Bridge”——not only for the quantity of the bridges, but the high standard building technology and worldwide influence as well. For instance, Chaotianmen Yangtze River Bridge, open to traffic in 2009, is the world's longest through-arch bridge, which carries six lanes in two ways with pedestrian lanes on both sides on the upper deck.

The development of Chongqing over the past 40 years is undoubtedly remarkable. Since the Reform and Opening-up policy was launched, my hometown’s outlook has changed into a completely new one. In 1997, two years before I was born, the city was officially established as the country’s fourth municipality as a follow-up of the policy. Fortunately, my grandparents had witnessed how the Liberation Monument, once the highest architecture in 1950s, was gradually surpassed by a growing number of higher skyscrapers. As for me, I am the witness of the dramatic development of the rail transit in Chongqing——from one single line to ten lines extending in all directions.

Moreover, although the Reform and Opening-up might be considered as a mirage when it was first proposed, its successful and reassuring influence can now be readily seen in every aspect of our life. Take the local residents as an example, they love this magical city and live there with dreams to pursue. One of my friends even tattooed “Made in Chongqing” on her back. Today, we stand proudly as members of the generation born at the perfect timing when the policy propels the city to develop with its fastest pace. As long as we possess a spirit of reform and an attitude of opening-up, one day we will speak for our country at the international stage that we are proud to be “made in China”.

This is one of the award-winning speech scripts in the 2018 China Daily“21st Century · Coca-Cola Cup” National English Speaking Competition Shanghai Final. The author, Yang Tianci, is an undergraduate student of SISU.