The first of October-National Day
1 min readThe tremendous celebrations on the first of october the date on which China commemorated sixty years since its foundation as a people’s republic included a bit of everything and catered for all tastes：dances from different ethnic groups（there are 56，many with their own spoken and written language）music；lights；parades with more than 100，000 participants who had rehearsed their chronometric formations for some considera ble time beforehand，and firework displays For the occasion，public transport in Beijing was suspended，the metro as well as the buses even when the general rehearsal took place theprevious Friday.On this sort of occasion，when it knows that the eyes of the world are upon it，China does not allow itself any mistakes；it is not enough for things to be nearly perfect，they must be perfect.
The Chinese are strict, with a punctuality which would be the envy of even the germans the acts were to begin at the time indicated not one minute earlier, nor one minute later, and so the parades began at 10 am, on the dot, as dictated by protocol but above all by the division of power first the formations of the various military forces, followed by rockets, tanks and all the paraphernalia the Chinese arsenals hold. Behind them came the civil entourage who were, selectively, summoned to accompany the parade, in all their beautiful and spectacular colour.
