November 13, 1994, is a special date in the history of motorsports. On this day, China held its first international race. At the time, the Communist regime was still striving to bolster its global profile. Spectacular races were expected to help. The historic race was held not in Beijing or Shanghai, but in Zhuhai on the South China Sea. Once a fishing village, the city had been designated a special economic zone and by the 1980s had grown to a population of over one million.