A: Welcome back to Listeners' Garden. I'm LPC.

B: And I'm JP. The song we are listening to is very popular among stock investors in China at the moment. With its humorous words and music, it vividly depicts both the sweetness and bitterness shareholders face as the stock market rises and falls.

A: Developing from scratch two decades ago, China's stock market has become not just a crucial component of the financial industry, but also an important part of many people's everyday lives. 

B: So in today's review of China's reform and opening up, we'll take a look at the development of the stock market.

A: More and more Chinese people have become willing to invest in the stock market, bearing witness to the rapid development of a rising industry in China.

B: Yes, the investors include not just the young and middle-aged, but also a huge number of retired residents. The securities bourses are often filled with grey-haired people. They gather there to track stock prices and share their experiences in stock trading.

B: Today the total number of stock accounts in China has exceeded 100 million. But three decades ago, few people in the country knew anything about stocks.

A: In 1984, the 'Shanghai Feile Acoustics Corporation' became the first company in China to issue its own shares to the public, but no bourse existed at that time. So it was difficult for shareholders to trade their stocks until September 1986, when the first stock trading counter was established in Shanghai.

B: There were only two stocks trading at the counter in the 1980s. Computers weren't available so the whole transaction procedure was carried out by hand or by phone.

A: Despite the inconvenience and tiny number of shares, the counter marked the birth of the stock market in China.

B: In November 1986, when John Phelan, the former Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, paid a visit to China and met with Deng Xiaoping, he received a special gift from the Chinese leader, a stock certificate issued by the Shanghai Feile Acoustics Company.

A: Small as it was, the gift sent the world a signal of China's determination to develop its capital market. Today that symbolic certificate is preserved in the New York Stock Exchange.

B: Before the stock market came into being, people in China had few options for making investments. Private savings went mainly into bank deposits and national treasury bonds.

A: But the situation began to change in 1990, when the first stock exchange was established in Shanghai, and then another one in Shenzhen.

B: Since then China's stock market has grown vigorously, opening a new channel for the common people to make investments.

A: China's stock market has gone through big changes over the past 20 years, from only two shares in the 1980s to more than 1,800 today, and from 100 thousand accounts in 1991 to 100 million this year.

B: The market saw a bullish run since late 2005. By October 2007, the index had soared to 6,000 points.

A: The bull market fired more people's frenzy for stocks. People were pouring their money into the lucrative market instead of saving it in banks.

B: Last year alone, the A share market registered 34 million new accounts, a ten fold increase over the previous year.

A: However, the stock market is not always a bullish one, as every investor hopes it to be. Since the end of last year, the market has seen a downturn.

A: Almost every stockholder has experienced the ups and downs of the stock market. It's said that one can not become a true stock investor without going through both the bull and bear markets.

B: Yes, the stock market is an environment that can make you laugh or cry. So people must be very cautious and rational when investing in the stock market and have a balanced view towards potential gains and losses.

A: That's right. Anyway, people get involved with the stock market to ensure a more prosperous life, not for aggravation. Health and happiness are more important than material gains.

B: And with that we wind up today's review of China's stock market.

A: And that also brings us to the end of our series of retrospective reports on China's reform and opening up over the past 30 years.