Well… here it is

President Hu Jintao rides to greet the soldiers before the march.

The powers that be couldn’t have asked for better weather today. Whether or not, as rumors say, Mother Nature’s hand was forced in creating it is not really a concern. The skies were blue and there was a light gentle breeze that felt surprisingly fresh for being in Beijing. Such miraculously good weather marked a day that the entire country had prepared for these past months. National Day had arrived and since I wouldn’t have been let anywhere near Tiananmen Square that morning, I was sitting in my living room watching the ceremonies on CCTV.

President Hu addresses the soldiers with the help of mics on the roof of his car.

One of the strangest sights I’ve seen in China greeted my eyes when I first turned on the TV. President Hu was standing up through the sunroof of a car exiting the front of Tiananmen. In front of his stiff figure were placed four microphones that were planted on the roof of the car. He and a military officer, who was standing in his own car, turned and faced each other, gave a greeting and then signaled the beginning of the review of the troops. The President motored down a good stretch of Changan Street shouting greetings to each military division that he passed, to which they enthusiastically responded. Past green, blue, white and red uniforms, then on past colorfully decorated tanks and anti-aircraft missile carriers. Occasionally the camera would cut away from a close up on the President’s emotionless figure to a bird’s eye view of the proceedings. From there all the troops and weapons looked like so many neatly arranged toys, the rainbow colored backdrop of hundreds of performers only added to the odd fantasy.

Bird's eye view of the National Day celebrations.

Politicians stand on Tiananmen reviewing the troops.

The President and his cohorts eventually turned back to Tiananmen, signaling the troops to get into position to start their march before the highest members of the Chinese government and military. Jiang Zemin was in the review section along with all of the members of the Communist Party’s Standing Committee. As division after division of troops and military equipment thundered past the grandstand, the politicians looked solemn when facing the camera and carried on small talk with each other. Though they managed to perk up a bit more when a women’s division of the PLA wearing red skirts and white boots marched past. I took notice too, they had wonderful legs.

A women's division of the PLA. They wear skirts and carry guns.

My neighbors take pictures of the jets as they fly by.

When the military ground equipment started passing by I started getting a little bored and turned to my computer to do some work. It wasn’t soon until I heard loud roars coming from outside my window, followed by gasps of astonishment from my neighbors on the ground floor. I finally put two and two together realizing that it was the air force’s jets flying passing right over my apartment! I grabbed my camera and rushed out. By the time I got outside and looked up I saw dozens of fighter jets and military helicopters passing just hundreds of feet over my head. I snapped pictures of the aircraft, all the while cursing myself for not bringing out a longer lens.

The planes are tiny, but I took this with a 35mm lens. They were flying pretty low.

Getting back to my apartment I saw that floats were now passing in front of the camera now. After seeing enough giant portraits and slogans I resigned myself to my computer again. Though not before I recognized that some of the objects that the performers were holding were the same ones I saw in the bags of the college students that I had encountered last month. I guess their training was worth it.

A memorial float dedicated to Deng Xiaoping, previous leader of China.

No luck seeing the fireworks.

In the evening a friend and I went to watch the night’s fireworks in a part of the city south of Tiananmen, but to no avail. We weren’t able to see them even though we were just over a kilometer away and on level elevation to where they were launched. The show didn’t live up to the expectation of it being a couple times bigger than the Olympic’s pyrotechnics, or at least we figured. Luckily the hotpot restaurant we ate dinner in turned on the TV to the nights celebrations at Tiananmen square. We had already missed the fireworks but what we saw made our night: The biggest public square in the world was filled to the brim with thousands of colorfully dressed performers singing, dancing and enjoying themselves. Students were there, young and old too, all smiling for the camera. This was the celebration that I had been waiting to see. It felt full of the energy of the country.

It felt good to see a side of the country broadcast that was a hundred times more genuine than the morning’s stiff events. The difference felt like night and day. The night’s events captured what I think of when I think of China: it was loud, a bit messy, boisterous and overdone but of all things it was vibrant and good natured. Of course there is the fact that all this took place in a well secured zone that spanned about a square mile but… well that says something about the country too doesn’t it. My favorite moment of what I saw on T.V. that night was of the members of the Standing Committee, President Hu included, dancing with the performers at the end of the event. The stiffness of their movements brought to mind the results of spending more than half your life as a bureaucrat, but it did seem that they were enjoying themselves in a somewhat awkward fashion.

Ah! The games of show and spectacle that our governments must play! Thank you CPC for letting me see the lengths that you put yourselves and your people through to entertain and amaze! And thank God it’s finally over!

Tags: celebration, national day