60 today－and going strong---szdaily

    ALL eyes will be on Tian’anmen Square in Beijing today, where a grand military parade, massive pageant and colorful fireworks display will take place to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China.

    CCTV will broadcast live the 16-hour celebrations to the whole world in Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian.

    President Hu Jintao will launch the celebrations, which will involve 180,000 participants, at 10 a.m., delivering a keynote speech and inspecting the military parade at Tian’anmen Square.

    Nearly 5,000 soldiers will march past the nation’s leaders. They will be grouped partly according to height, with no variation of more than six centimeters. They will march at an exact pace of 116 steps a minute and it will take each column one minute and six seconds to march past the top leaders at the main podium.

    Next will come rows of tanks and vehicles mounted with missiles, communications and other military equipment. More than 150 planes will fly in formation overhead, some trailing colored vapors.

    Defense Minister Liang Guanglie has said the parade will demonstrate that China now has weaponry as sophisticated as that of developed nations and that the hardware is now manufactured in China.

    Following the parade comes the civilians’ parade, in which about 100,000 ordinary Chinese citizens and some 80,000 primary and middle school students will take part.

    Among them will be 181 expatriates, the first appearance of foreigners in celebrations of the country’s birthday.

    Spectators and TV viewers will be dazzled by three-dimensional fireworks, a first-time feat in China.

    The fireworks show, lasting more than half an hour, will use twice the amount of fireworks used during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

    The show’s highlights will be three fireworks paintings over Tian’anmen Square lasting around one minute, said Zhang Heping, deputy commander of the event.

    The fireworks paintings, each 90 meters long by 25 meters wide, will be the largest of their kind in the world, he said.

    Six cranes, each weighing 250 tons, will be used to ensure the fireworks paintings hang in the air, he said.

    The fireworks display was designed by Cai Guoqiang, who surprised millions of viewers last year with 29 giant firework footprints walking along the central axis of Beijing city during the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony.

    Fireworks will blast off from 99 sites in the city’s 16 districts and counties.

    The fireworks show will be based around the art forms of Chinese painting and calligraphy.

    The scale of the celebrations reflects strong patriotic feelings among many Chinese, who feel proud of the country’s achievements since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949 — a transformation from an impoverished, war-wracked country to an economic and diplomatic power.

    Beijing resident Cui Jin, 65, said she felt the enormous display of military power was an appropriate way to mark the anniversary.

    “In the future, (our parades) should be even bigger,” she said. “If we do not have a strong defense army or a very capable People’s Army, how can we have peace and security?”

    The State Council, or Cabinet, held a grand reception marking the country’s 60th birthday at the Great Hall of the People yesterday evening. (Xinhua)