China's leaders dance as fireworks, songs end birthday gala

Published by Asia-Pacific News
Beijing - China's top leaders danced and sang with performers in Beijing's Tiananmen Square Thursday night as spectacular fireworks ended a day of celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic.

State President and Communist Party leader Hu Jintao, his predecessor Jiang Zemin and other leaders left their seats on the Tiananen Rostrum to join the finale with about 60,000 performers in the square.

The leaders earlier watched mass performances of long medleys of songs and dances representing China's 56 officially designated ethnic groups and its 30-plus regions.

Many well-known singers took part in the fast-changing mixture of popular, folk and patriotic songs with strong propaganda value to the Communist Party.

Firework 'paintings' of dragons, a Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft and the railway to Tibet were displayed on a 90-metre-long screen in the square.

Thousands of people held giant cards above them to create images of white doves as fireworks exploded over the square to represent 60 more doves.

The fireworks were designed by artist Cai Guoqiang, who directed the fireworks for the opening and closing ceremonies of last year's Olympic Games in Beijing.

The Beijing Daily newspaper quoted Ding Zhenkuan, who took charge of the pyrotechnics, as saying about 42,000 shells would be let off, double the number used for the Olympics opening ceremony.

Many of the performers wore the costumes of China's ethnic minorities with Tibetan, Uighur and Mongolian dancers featured prominently.

But the official Xinhua news agency said one group of dancers in Tibetan costumes was actually organized by a neighbourhood committee in Beijing's Haidian district.

The evening gala began with the song 'I Love China' as 4,000 people formed a 'light cube' in the centre of the vast square, which hosted the first major military parade in 10 years earlier in the day.

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