Jiang's remains arrive in Beijing

Members of the office of Comrade Jiang Zemin's Funeral Committee, which was formed on Wednesday, and Jiang's relatives escorted his remains.

Before the solemn event in Beijing, a ceremony was held at Huadong Hospital Affiliated with Fudan University in Shanghai at 12:10 pm, as members of the office of the funeral committee, top officials in Shanghai, members of Jiang's family, friends and medical workers bade farewell to the late Chinese leader.

They escorted the casket to Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, while members of the public in Shanghai lined the streets to pay tribute to Jiang.

Jiang, who passed away in Shanghai on Wednesday at the age of 96, has been hailed as a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, statesman, military strategist and diplomat, a long-tested communist fighter, and an outstanding leader of the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics in a letter addressed to the whole Party, the entire military and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups.

He was the core of the CPC's third generation of central collective leadership and the principal founder of the Theory of Three Represents, said the letter.

In a gesture of utmost respect and mourning by the whole Party, military and people, the national flags at Tian'anmen Square, Xinhuamen, the Great Hall of the People, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao SAR and Chinese embassies and consulates in foreign countries are being flown at half-staff starting on Thursday.