Watch Chinese officials ring the opening gongs of the Hong Kong-Shanghai linked stock exchanges

(Image credit: AFP/YouTube)

last updated 8 January 2015

China opened up a sort of portal between its domestic stock market and international investors on Monday, inaugurating a new link between the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. The new Stock Connect system allows non-Chinese to directly buy and sell mainland Chinese equities for the first time, through the Hong Kong bourse, and gives authorized mainland Chinese investors their first access to the Hong Kong market.

Analysts aren't sure how this unprecedented opening of the Chinese market will play out, but on Day 1 more international investors bought shares in the Shanghai exchange than mainland Chinese bought of Hong Kong-listed stocks. Time will tell. In the meantime, you can watch officials in Honk Kong and Shanghai officially welcoming the partnership by ringing the opening gongs. --Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.