President Xi Jinping and other Party and State leaders attended a grand gala marking the 40th anniversary of the country’s historic journey of reform and opening-up on Friday night.

The gala, held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, showcased China’s great achievements since reform and opening-up was initiated by late leader Deng Xiaoping in 1978.

Over the past 40 years, China has recorded an average annual GDP growth rate of around 9.5 percent, fostered a middle-income population of 400 million and lifted more than 700 million Chinese people out of poverty, accounting for more than 70 percent of the global total.

The gala was among a series of recent high-profile official activities commemorating reform and opening-up.

On Nov 13, Xi visited a major exhibition at the National Museum of China to commemorate the 40th anniversary.

Friday also saw the global release of a cross-border, coproduced documentary to review the achievements of reform and opening-up in the National Museum of China. The three-episode production How China Made It is being aired on online streaming platform Youku.com and broadcast worldwide through the US-based Discovery Channel starting Saturday.