(MONEY Magazine) – China's flirtation with capitalism took a great leap forward in 1990 when Beijing's leaders reopened the dormant Shanghai stock exchange after 41 years. By July 1991, when a second exchange started up in Shenzhen, just over the border from Hong Kong in Guangdong province, demand by Chinese citizens for shares was so great that even worthless photocopies of stock certificates were bought and sold on the streets. Today, 26 securities trade on that wild exchange, and volume has been averaging about 10 million shares a day, vs. 200 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Writer Anthony Cook visited and filed this report:

My trip begins on a note of uncertainty. When I ask officials of the China Travel Service in Hong Kong for directions to the Shenzhen stock exchange, they suggest I inquire, upon arrival, at the city's produce market, apparently figuring that purchasing shares is more or less like shopping for bok choy or caged snakes. After the tourism official misunderstands me to mean ''bombs'' when I say ''bonds,'' I buy a map and a phrase book. Following a 50-minute train ride north, I find that Shenzhen (pop. 2 million) is now Boom City, replete with skyscrapers, Mercedes and cellular phones. After being dropped off at the wrong address by a confused cabby and wandering around for an hour and a half, searching for brokers in pin-striped Mao jackets, I happen upon my destination.

Crowded in front of a storefront video monitor displaying the day's stock prices is a group of about 100 or so tape watchers. And stretching 200 feet along the sidewalk is a line of eager investors who've come from all over China to invest in such companies as China Bicycles and Shenzhen Konka, China's largest color-TV manufacturer. It seems that the surest way to place an order with one of the street-side brokers is to stand in a queue overnight -- or pay 200 yuan ($37) to a local entrepreneur (that is, gangster) for a favored spot in line. The action on the exchange itself, 15 floors up, stands in stark contrast to the carnival below: 33 clerks sit calmly at computer terminals, punching in buy and sell orders. Unlike the boisterous New York exchange, there are no floor brokers, no specialists, no discarded order slips. Businesslike? Yes. Boring? No way. It's not unusual for a stock there to rise or fall 20% in a day. Price/earnings ratios recently hit a Himalayan 146, and the Shenzhen market index is up 176% so far this year. Of the 26 listed stocks, 18 are sold only to Chinese citizens. The other eight are so-called B shares, exclusively for foreigners. The Bs must meet tougher accounting standards for listing than the A shares. The easiest way for most Americans to invest is by purchasing one of the NYSE-listed closed-end funds that are currently buying Bs: the China Fund ($14.50), the Greater China Fund ($13.25) and Jardine Fleming China Region Fund ($14.50). None were recently selling at large discounts to net asset value. And judging from the action in the streets of Shenzhen, investors could have a bumpy ride. Call it trading stocks and bombs.