October Holiday

October 1st is China's National Day. This year, October 1st marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. It was the party to end all parties. The morning of the 1st was the national parade - no one does a parade like the communists. When we heard what this parade was going to consist of we decided we had to make every effort to go downtown to watch it. China does things differently than the USA. We tried to see how close we could get to Tian'an Men to watch the parade. Answer: about 2 miles was as close as we got. However, we were able to position ourselves along Chang' an Jie which turned out to be the exit route for the military vehicles. It was a sight to see. The pics below do not do it justice. What you will see are some of the tanks and missiles and airplanes that went by. What you will not see is the magnitude of the parade. Take every picture you see and then multiple it by about 50 because that is about how many of each missile/tank that rolled by. The first picture is of an intercontinental nuclear capable ballistic missile. I almost wet my pants as dozens of them rolled by about 20 yards in front of me. The pics are impressive but the video is even more so. Check out the marching highlights at:

http://english.cctv.com/program/worldwidewatch/20091002/101448.shtml

and the weapons display at:

http://english.cctv.com/program/worldwidewatch/20091002/101485.shtml