60th Anniversary Celebration and Parade - watch live online now . . .

[roddy]

What？Over so soon? Can probably rely on CCTV to just repeat it . . .

[Guest realmayo]

So that's it. I enjoyed most of this morning's stuff. But this evening, I guess it was too close to the Olympics ... seemed like a cross between the opening ceremony, and a Spring Festival gala.

[gato]

meinv = 美女

Oh, I thought it was an acronym for some high-tech weaponry. Low-tech will do.

[roddy]

Right, what'll we watch now then?

[self-taught-mba]

Let's continue to pad our post counts for a while. Missed the Olympics opportunity you know . . .

[Guest realmayo]

Hmm, looking for some earlier Zhang Yi Mou films on PPLive -- think I'll watch a bit of Raise the Red Lantern again, doesn't have quite the same cheery message as tonight's performance in Beijing though. But, does have Gong Li!

[gato]

think I'll watch a bit of Raise the Red Lantern again,

Ju Dou's better, I think. It has Gong Li, too. (She's all these ads nowadays.)

[Outofin]

The parade was a bit predictably dull. But the fireworks and performance in the night was spectacular! It reminds me the most rudimental and prominent reality of China: we have a lot of people!

Good the see Jiang again. People used to call Li Peng, Zhu Rongji and Jiang Zemin 李傻子，朱疯子，江戏子, because Jiang always had a big smile on his face. Now I think in retrospect, that was a bit unfair to him. Jiang did a good job. He was like a cheer leader, and showed a more colorful personality than Hu.

[889]

And Li Peng did make a brief appearance last night as well, there dancing at the end.

In Tiananmen Square.

[gato]

It reminds me the most rudimental and prominent reality of China: we have a lot of people!

Even with a big population, this is only possible in a non-democracy. There's no way else to get tens, perhaps hundreds of thousand of people to give up their summer to practice marching and flipping cards for ten hours a day. Every university (and apparently junior and high schools, too) in Beijing was asked to "volunteer" 2-3000 students for the event. The central government distributes a small stipend to each students, but it seems that the schools keep most of the stipends (which total around 100 yuan), giving very little if anything at all to the students.

In addition to the months of practice, the students (and soldiers) basically didn't sleep the night before and started arriving at Tiananmen Square around 3 o'clock in the morning to prepare for the big event. This is not something that you can get people to volunteer to do in a democracy, unless it were a war situation.

See these posts from Baidu Answer (zhidao)

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/113552896.html?fr=qrl&cid=176&index=1

60年国庆背景表演 给钱么

最佳答案

给，但很少，百十块钱，通常被你所在单位克扣了

Translation:

Question: Any stipend for performing in the background the 60th anniversary?

Best Answer: Some, but very litte, ten, maybe a hundred yuan, usually your Danwei(work unit/school) takes a big cut

国庆阅兵大学生方阵训练

国庆阅兵大学生方阵的训练大概是什么样的？大概怎么训练？给一些相关的情报~~有用高分追加~

最佳答案

一.**** 时间地点

1.总体时间，7月初到10月1号。期间不断。

2.每天时间。早8.00-下午4.00.（各学校结束时间可能不一样，但下午结束）中间有休息。

3.期间各学校澡堂、宿舍楼全部开放。提供晚住宿。北京同学可选择回家。只要你第二天还来得了

二．福利和补偿

1、没有假期补助。十一七天假还扣你一天。

2. 我问你一问题。假如你妈过生日，你能找他要钱买生日蛋糕和礼物吗！？所以同理，补偿别想得到太多

3. 每天含有早餐和午餐。顿顿都是面包，可能会有改善。吃完保证你成面包控。

4、提供矿泉水。

三．彩排

1、.彩排分2种，校级和国家级。校级不赘述，各学校不同

2. 国家彩排一共3次。最后一次最为重要，因为临近十一，所以重要高官这次就不委派替身，真人直接过来站在指定地点。

3.国家彩排的时间都是晚上12点开始，晚上12点天安门广场开始清场。然后合，好的话大概3点就能结束。不顺利的话一起参加升旗仪式吧。

4.彩排的时候学校有专车接送，车上可以睡会，等其他学校陆续赶到

Translation:

Question: What is training for the university student marchers in National Day military review like?

Best Answer:

A. Time and Place

1. Overall Period: Early July to October 1, on a continual basis.

2. Daily. 8am - 4pm. (The finish time may vary between schools, but usually finishes in the afternoon.) There is a rest period during lunch.

3. During the training period, the school bathhouses and dormitories are open and available for use. Students originally from Beijing can go home, but you must return the next day.

B. Benefits and Compensation

1. No compensation for lost vacation time. You even lose one more day from the 7-day National Day holidays.

2. Let me ask you. For your mom's birthday, are you going to ask your mom for money to buy her cake and present? For the same reason, don't think too much about compensation.

3. There is breakfast and lunch every day. Only bread is provided. May be improvements in the future. After you eat it all, you'll become a bread addict.

4. Mineral water is provided.

C. Rehearsals

1. There are two kinds of rehearsals: school-level and national-level. Won't talk about school rehearsals as they vary between schools.

2. There are three national rehearsals. The last one is the most important because it is the closest to October 1, so top officials will attend in person and not use stand-ins.

3. National rehearsals start at midnight. Tiananmen Square will be closed off before midnight. If everything goes smoothly, things will finish up at around 3am. If not, you can join the flag-raising ceremony in the morning.

4. Schools will provide buses to take you to and from the rehearsals. You can sleep on the bus while you are waiting for other schools to arrive.

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/102849849.html?si=4

学校强迫我们参加“09年国庆方阵”，我们怎么办？

我是一名大学生，今年已经大三了，在开学就是大四的了。可是现在学校突然给我们通知，让我们班干部和党员必须参加国庆方阵！

我知道这是一次政治任务，也是一份荣誉，可能别人想参加都没有办法。可是学校真的没有考虑过我们的处境么？我们好多同学都开始工作了，可是就要为了这件事，外地同学不能回家，有工作的不能上班，那我们怎么办？我们该到什么地方去说理？？？！！！

能怎么办啊,难道你还想抗议?要是可以不在乎学校的话那你不去就是了,可你做的到吗?兄弟,没办法,受吧!

没办法吧 我们学校强迫我们下雨天在外面当观众

Translation:

Question: Our school is forcing us to be marchers in the 2009 National Day Celebration. What can we do?

I'm an university student. Currently a junior and will be a senior when school starts in the fall. Our school suddenly notified us that class officers and Party members must join as marchers in the National Day celebration. I know it's a political duty and also an honor. Maybe there are even those who want to participate but cannot. But did the school really fail to consider our situation? Many of our classmates have started work, but because of this, students from outside of Beijing cannot go home, those with jobs cannot work. What can we do? Where can we go to complain?

Answers:

1. What can you do? You want to protest? If you don't care about school, just don't go, but can you do that? Bro, you can't do anything about it . Just accept it.

2. You can't do anything about it. Our school forces us to stand outside as spectators when it's raining.

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/119304170.html?si=10

国庆背景表演到底发不发钱 ？？（我是初中生）

我在东城区，假期几乎每天都要去学校训练（背景翻花）。我听说有补贴，到底多少钱？

发个屁 最多是给你们学校钱 你们 呵呵

而且这些事情还是强迫性质的 现在这些政府就会做这些劳民伤财的事情还会干什么 当然吃喝嫖赌除外

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/106779875.html?fr=qrl&cid=84&index=5

有关国庆背景表演和憋尿的问题

我是国庆背景表演的一员,两次大彩排和正式时,我们都是最先来,最后走,至少在天安门广场上站10个小时.可想而知,我们不可能上厕所(有90年亚运开幕式作先鉴).憋尿10个小时是特别痛苦吗?正常人(初中女生)能憋得住吗?有甚末憋尿方法吗?正常初中女生憋尿极限是多久?谢谢!

我们中学也在练啊。。。

老师说会有人负责这些问题，大家不用担心这些事，

所以没什么，

要尿大家都得憋不住，

总不能天安门广场骚哄哄的吧

昨天又确认了一遍

老师说一人发一个尿不湿。。。

我们班都喷了

Edited October 2, 2009 at 03:55 AM by gato

[roddy]

Gato, could you perhaps provide translations for the non-Chinese readers.

[gato]

Ok. Let me see.

Ok. Translated a few posts.

Edited October 2, 2009 at 03:55 AM by gato

[James Johnston]

Save some time and watch the parade in 3 min 42 sec (plus advertising).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/oct/01/china-national-day-timelapse

[Xiwang]

In addition to the months of practice, the students (and soldiers) basically didn't sleep the night before and started arriving at Tiananmen Square around 3 o'clock in the morning to prepare for the big event.

The CCTV-9 anchor from New Zealand mentioned that he and his fellow expat float participants actually had to get to Tiananmen at 1:30 a.m. He also did say that it was a lot of fun.

[Meng Lelan]

Blah, missed the whole schmozzle, parade, fireworks and all due to massive internet crash here. Any way that I can watch a re-run of the whole enchilada on youtube or something like that?

[leeyah]

Well, here's a tiny bit of the enchilada for you in the link below, MengLelan. But actually, I've question of a different nature, which just happens to coincide with the Anniversary. I'm hoping we have music experts here, so perhaps someone can help, pls.

Came across this (卫报摄影记者张丹（Dan Chung）定时摄影（timelapse）记录国庆阅兵) on Youku the other day and I really liked >>> THE MUSIC!!

Does anyone have any idea what the theme is called, or who is the author?

[Meng Lelan]

Actually I found a bunch of YouTubes showing the fireworks in 10 segments. Those are some fireworks, this must cost a big enchilada alright. Look how those girls are beaming at their leaders as they lead the leaders by the arms into the big square. Those girls look unnatural, I don't know, I mean, how are those girls trained to do that? I was amazed.

[Outofin]

Came across this (卫报摄影记者张丹（Dan Chung）定时摄影（timelapse）记录国庆阅兵) on Youku the other day and I really liked >>> THE MUSIC!!

Does anyone have any idea what the theme is called, or who is the author?

I heard of the name sometime ago. There were some video from a preproduction Canon EOS 7D flying among electronics enthusiast circles. And the author was Dan Chung. You can find the video at here (some Beijing streets and nightlife), and probably Dan himself. I guess the parade video was shot using the same equipment.