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On a freezing January afternoon in 1992, Deng Xiaoping, China's former paramount leader and now a revered elder statesman, set off on a month long trip around China's south in defence of the reforms he had set in motion to open up China's economy and transform the country into the political and economic powerhouse we know today.

In this book Jonathan Chatwin travels 3000 miles in the footsteps of Deng's legendary "southern tour", pursuing the stories of his journey and examining its legacies in the country today. Chatwin explores a nation still gripped by the pursuit of wealth that Deng legitimized, and transformed by the large-scale urban developments exemplified by the mega-cities of southern China, such as Shenzhen and Guangdong. Drawing on historical and contemporary eyewitness accounts, The Southern Tour brings to life the story of China's transformation into a 21st-century superpower.