60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China

60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China

Logo for the 60th anniversary of the PRC
Date	1 October 2009 (2009-10-01)
Also known as	中华人民共和国成立六十周年庆典
Website	Xinhua People's Daily China Daily Global Times

The 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China took place on 1 October 2009. A military parade involving 10,000 troops and the display of many high-tech weapons was held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing and various celebrations were conducted all over the country. Hu Jintao inspected the troops along Chang'an Avenue in Beijing. This parade was immediately followed by a civilian parade involving 100,000 participants.

The People's Republic of China was founded on 1 October 1949. Since then, celebrations of varying scales occur on National Day each year. Military parades, presided over by Chairman Mao Zedong, were held every year between 1949 and 1959. In September 1960, the Chinese leadership decided that in order to save funds and "be frugal", large-scale ceremonies for National Day would only be held every ten years, with a smaller-scale ceremony every five years. The last large-scale celebration during the Mao era was in 1969. Large-scale celebrations did not take place for 14 years amidst the climax of the Cultural Revolution. Since then, the most prominent National Day celebrations have taken place in 1984 and 1999, at the 35th and 50th anniversaries respectively. During these celebrations, then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin reviewed military parades of the People's Liberation Army. The 2009 parade was the first and last time Hu Jintao oversaw this task, as he will leave office in 2012 due to term limits.

40 million potted flowers, supplied by the state-owned Beijing Flowers & Trees Corp., were put in place in Beijing streets, approximately 5 million of which have been planted along the east-west axis of Chang'an Avenue, also known as 'Avenue of Eternal Peace'. Flowers in Tiananmen Square were under 24-hour surveillance; Beijing Jinggong Red Flag factory is producing 2 million national flags for the celebrations. In Tiananmen Square itself, 56 "pillars of national unity" – each one symbolizing the 56 ethnic groups in China – were erected, with each containing fireworks for the night event on 1 October. 800,000 volunteers controlled crowds and maintained order while a further 30,000 provided translation services at subway and bus stations.