At the beginning of 2009, things were not looking promising for initial public offerings from Chinese companies, not least because regulators had stopped approving flotations on mainland stock exchanges.
Few expected that 12 months later the Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong exchanges would have secured almost $60bn through IPOs – more than double the amount raised in the US, the world's traditional IPO hotspot.
The end of Beijing's nine-month IPO suspension in June unleashed a wave of listings in Shanghai and Shenzhen, while companies also rushed to Hong Kong to take advantage of rallying stock markets and surging inflows of international capital.