Here we break down the transformation in numbers.

- 42 - The factor by which the size of China's economy multiplied between 1980 and 2017, expanding from $305 billion to $12.7 trillion.

- 620 - The number of dollar billionaires in China -- the most in the world

- 1 - China's rank as the world's biggest exporter, its economic engine. Goods and services were worth $2.49 trillion in 2017, well ahead of the United States in second place. The value of Chinese exports was just $21 billion in 1980.

- 10.2 - The average percentage growth rate in China's economy between 1980 and 2016.

- 168 - The value, in billions of dollars, of foreign investment into China in 2017, up from virtually nothing in 1980.

- 216 - Chinese investment abroad, in billions of dollars, in 2016.

- 90 - The factor by which Chinese household consumption grew between 1980 and 2016, exploding from $49 billion to $4.4 trillion.

- 13.9 - The percentage of national wealth held by the richest one percent in 2015, up from 6.4 percent in 1980, as China becomes increasingly unequal

- 5 - The factor by which CO2 emissions multiplied between 1980 and 2014, as the country's phenomenal growth comes at a heavy environmental cost.

- 1.39 - The population, in billions, of China in 2017, up from 963 million inhabitants in 1978 and making it the world's most populous country. Beijing imposed the one-child policy in 1979 in a bid to slow population growth, but it was finally abandoned in 2015 due to an ageing population.

- 76 - Average Chinese life expectancy in 2016, up from 66 in 1979.

- 4 - Percentage of the Chinese population who were illiterate in 2010, compared with 22 percent in 1982.