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Summary
Senior leaders and over one thousand representatives from Chinese society and the military marked the 61st anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China with a wreath laying ceremony in Tiananmen Square on Friday. Tiananmen Square, which is the world's biggest public space, was covered in a sea of flowers in preparation for the ceremony, which started at around 10 a.m. local time (0200gmt), state-run China Central Television (CCTV) showed. Jia Qinglin (pron: jiah ching-lin), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), announced the opening of the ceremony. Let the flower laying ceremony at the Monument to the People's Heroes begin, he said. President Hu Jintao and the other eight members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo joined the crowd in singing the Chinese national anthem before a moment of silence in commemoration of China's communist heroes and martyrs. Under hazy skies, eighteen honorary guards solemnly carried forward nine flower wreaths and laid them on the north-side of the Monument to the People's Heroes in the centre of the square, facing the Forbidden City and the portrait of former chairman Mao Zedong that hangs on its gate. Hu walked forwards to adjust the ribbons hanging on the wreaths before he, Premier Wen Jiabao and other Standing Committee members paid their respect by walking past the wreaths. They were then followed by all the other people present at the ceremony, who included representatives from the People's Liberation Army and many segments of Chinese society, but also people representing China's 56 ethnicity wearing traditional costumes. October 1 marks the 61st anniversary of the day Mao proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China from Tiananmen Square rostrum on October 1, 1949.
