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Sixty-gun salutes, flag raising ceremony kick off grand celebration

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-01 10:28

Sixty-gun salutes kick off a grand celebration of the 60th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China in Beijing, October 1, 2009. [Xinhua]

BEIJING: A solemn flag-raising ceremony and 60-gun salutes kicked off a grand celebration in central Beijing Thursday morning to mark the 60th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders joined about 200,000 paraders, soldiers, students and dignitaries for the big day of New China on Tian'anmen Square.

The 440,000-square-meter square, overlooked by a huge south-facing portrait of late Chairman Mao Zedong on Tian'anmen Rostrum, was packed with flower-holding youngsters, solemn guards, performers dressed in colorful clothes, and numerous police to safeguard a tight security.

A total of 56 red columns were erected on the east and west sides of the square, which represented the 56 ethnic groups in China. Sixty huge lantern-shaped balloons over the square were also in red color, which symbolize auspice and happiness according to Chinese tradition.

At 10 a.m., Liu Qi, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), announced the start of the grand rally.

Amid 60 gun salutes, a squad of 200 armed police in olive green uniforms walked down the platform of the Monument to the People's Heroes in the center of the square, carrying a furled flag and marching northward on a red carpet toward the national flag post.

The guards walked a total of 169 steps, which symbolized 169 years since 1840, a watershed in China's history when the country lost the  Opium War with Britain. That eventually led to the scramble of Western power in China.

The founding of the People's Republic ended China's history of being humiliated by outside forces. The country now is emerging as a major political and economic power in the international stage.