Parade rallies pride and patriotism

A flag guard formation consisting of officers and soldiers from the army, air force, navy and rocket force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) attends a military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA at Zhurihe training base in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, July 30, 2017.[Photo/Xinhua]

The parade held this morning to mark the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers and incited lively discussions online.

The live-streaming of the parade at Zhurihe Training Base in Inner Mongolia autonomous region by China Central Television (CCTV) has been viewed 28 million times on Sina Weibo, a Chinese micro blog. The topic hosted by the broadcaster now ranks first on the website in terms of popularity during the past 24 hours. It has garnered 250 million page views and some 230,000 netizens left comments.

Weibo user bengdadenainiu wrote, "Thanks to such a mighty army, we can enjoy this life without fear or concern."

"I have tears in my eyes watching this parade. The establishment that Chinese people have achieved is built on the blood and sacrifice of past generations. I can feel the country is growing stronger," stated weibo user Moushan.

Data from Baidu, China's leading search engine, shows that the parade is currently the most searched term on the website with more than one million related results.

The complete video of the 70-minute parade has been played 130 million times on Tencent's video service platform, v.qq.com. Entries related to the parade take up the top four places among the most viewed six videos.

"I feel so proud to see the parade. In 90 years, the Chinese army started from nothing and achieved such impressive progress. I feel so proud to be a Chinese," a viewer commented on the website.

The field parade kicked off in northern China at 9 am Sunday. The PLA's 90th anniversary falls on Tuesday.

This was the first time in nearly four decades that the PLA held a parade at an exercise field. Hundreds of large weapons and equipment, many of them never shown to the public before, and 12,000 troops took part in the grand event.