China celebrates 59th founding anniversary

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-01 11:57

BEIJING -- The 59th anniversary of founding of the People's Republic of China, which fell on Wednesday, was celebrated all across the country.

Pigeons are released after a national flag-raising ceremony at the Tian'anmen Square in central Beijing at dawn of October 1 2008, the 59th National Day. About 190,000 people all across the country crowded the Tian'anmen Square to watch the ceremony. [Xinhua]

At Tian'anmen Square, the heart of the national capital of Beijing, some 190,000 people from different parts of the country gathered early on Wednesday to attend a special flag-hoisting ceremony marking the occasion.

A group of students from Weishan Middle School in Tianjin, a mega city not far away from Beijing, on Wednesday chose to visit a photo exhibition, featuring Five-Star Flag Flutters in the Wind, at Tianjin Museum.

Down south, more than 800 people in east China's Jiangsu Province participated a ceremony held inside the Yuhuatai Cemetery for the martyears in Nanjing, provincial capital of Jiangsu, at 8 a.m.

Among the participants were local officials from Jiangsu provincial government and city officials of Nanjing, school students, military officers and soldiers, as well as representatives of ordinary residents in the city.

Apart from placing wreaths of fresh flowers to the monument for martyears, participants also observed one minute of silence and encircled the monument, with The Internationale played as the backdrop.

In Guangzhou, a key city in south China, more than 1,000 people attended a memorial service staged in Guangzhou Uprising Martyr Cemetery Park on Wednesday.

Led by Wang Yang, Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Huang Huahua, Governor of Guangdong, the participants attended a National Flag-raising ceremony. Wang and Huang also laid floral baskets in front of the Monument for Martyears in Guangzhou Uprising.