http://ayonae.com/img/340x.jpg (http://ayonae.com/img/original.jpg)

Wouldn't it be nice if we had these for our 4th of Julys? Happy Birthday, China! (or at least, Happy Birthday Somewhat-Communist-More-Capitalist-Than-USA China; China as a structured country is more than 4000 years old)

Congratulations indeed and continued human rights violations to one and all...

Happy Birthday China!

Congratulations indeed and continued human rights violations to one and all...

You are a walking Human rights violation...

They controlled the sky for it!

China's air force deployed a "magic-like" range of chemicals and technology to clear Beijing's smoggy air for a grand parade marking the 60th anniversary of Communist China, state media said on Thursday.

Chemists and officials worked for weeks on the country's most ambitious ever attempt at weather modification, with air force technicians fanning out across the region to help teams operate complex equipment, the official Xinhua agency said.

The evening before the parade chemicals were fired into the hazy skies, and a light rain washed the city clean.

Surrounding provinces had already been loading clouds with silver iodide and dry ice, to try and force rain to fall before it reached Beijing, the report added.

"Only a handful of countries in the world could organise such large-scale, magic-like weather modification," said Cui Lianqing, a senior air force meteorologist who said the parade operation was the largest in China's history.

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-42835120091001

(Shenanigans)

Grats! Quite the celebration.

And I see China is still trying to outdo the West; here, a woman will usually drag just one or two friends to tag along when they go to the restroom.

here, a woman will usually drag just one or two friends to tag along when they go to the restroom.

haha so true, it's usually more than one or two for me though we tend to flock places and I have no idea why. =\

Those ladies can violate my human rights, anytime they so wish....

I wonder how long it had been since Beijing saw blue skies?

Gotta love goose stepping cuties in short skirts and boots.

You are a walking Human rights violation...

The Plumbers tewl speaks!! Exactly what human right has he violated?

The Plumbers tewl speaks!! Exactly what human right has he violated?

lol you are a very funny man... It's called a JOKE!

Was nice to get last week off. Everything was shut down for this.

I did get lost and go by Tienanmen Square after doing an off-site service call on the 30th of Sept and see all the preparation. They pulled out all the stops. Huge TV monitors showing all the latest achievements and so forth. Large portraits of the usual suspects. Red lanterns and flags galore. /shrug. It still seemed the stereotypical Communist bit, only more of it. There was also the usual placement of cops and troops with all their most intimidating hardware to remind everyone that Mao still cares about you even if you don't care about Mao. Nothing went down though. It was perfectly peaceful as far as I know. I didn't check it out the next day. The parades and ceremonies were reserved only for high ranking officials and dignitaries. The average Chinese and riff-raff such as myself had to watch all the goose stepping from a far distance or on the TV.

The fireworks show on Oct 1st was just bad ass though. If there is one thing China can boast as being homegrown perfection, fireworks are definitely it!

"China as a structured country is more than 4000 years old"

Yah, this is true, but it sucks that a lot of the Chinese I have met along the way here feel this earns them entitlement to do whatever their nation wants to do and almost gives them a Manifest Destiny. I would just argue that it is more like 4000 years of the same shit everyone else pulls. Be proud, but also remember that you as a country have been fucking up longer than everyone else as well too and if ANYONE should have a clue after that long, well, perhaps its not sinking in. Wars, coups, insurrections and usurpers as well as empires, kingdoms and conquerors. That and the unwillingness to change. Granted they came up with some truly wonderful inventions long before Jesus or Mohamed set up shop but there was just as much political corruption and flawed politics back then as there is now.

LummusL, I don't doubt that an old country has a myriad of problems. You could say the same for the UK (the former British Empire that colonised Hong Kong, Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand, India, and many more places), Portugal (which colonised Macau, Brazil, etc), France (which colonised/still colonises Vietnam, French Polynesia, etc), Spain (Central/South America, no?), the Dutch (Congo, South Africa). You get the idea. I like the US because it doesn't have much history to begin with, which is a blessing for someone who can fit in a land that belongs to no one (unless you're Native American; then you have my sympathy).

A lot of people have difficulty understanding why Mao instituted the Cultural Revolution. The reason is that in Mao's eyes, Chinese traditions had a lot of bad history, culture, customs, and the only way to cleanse the country of these ills was to eliminate Chinese culture, which more or less succeeded, and many of the traditions celebrated China now are just a mere ghost of past celebrations.

You should visit Hong Kong or Taiwan. Fantastic places. These places are more Chinese than China in many ways because the Cultural Revolution didn't touch the culture in those places at all. Taiwan (self-called "Republic of China") kept alive, for example, traditional Chinese theatre, when Mainland China was undergoing the Cultural Revolution.