Where the Pearl River Estuary narrows, a series of towns, now merged into one indistinguishable city, spread themselves from the edge of the eastern bank. This is Dongguan, sitting between the cities of Shenzhen to the south, and the provincial capital of Guangdong, Guangzhou, to the north. Deng did not visit Dongguan on his southern tour of 1992, but the city was a key part of Guangdong’s remarkable economic success in the reform and opening period. It became known as the factory of the world, making cheap clothes, shoes and toys, its white-tiled factories staffed by migrant workers who made up as much as two-thirds of the city’s population.

Today, we take a trip there with Dexter Roberts (@dtiffroberts), author of recent book The Myth of Chinese Capitalism: The Worker, the Factory, and the Future of the World. Dexter was China bureau chief and Asia News Editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, based in Beijing for more than two decades. He is currently nonresident Senior Fellow in the Atlantic Council's Asia Security Initiative, a Fellow at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center, and an adjunct instructor in political science at the University of Montana.