The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and local paramilitary squads held a series of earthquake and air raid drills in north China's Shanxi Province on Monday to mark China's Army Day, which falls on August 1.

The maneuvers were intended to test the ability of military and paramilitary units in Shanxi to deal with military and non-war affairs, according to Liu Yunhai, commander of the PLA Shanxi Provincial Military Area Command, which organized the drills.

More than 3,000 people from PLA provincial military area command and paramilitary units took part in the exercises. A variety of equipment was used during the drills, including anti-aircraft machine guns, mortars, recoilless rifles and two helicopters.

Participants were required to conduct rescue operations after a simulated 6.7-magnitude earthquake. The rescuers had to contend with oil fires, gas leaks and damaged water, gas and power facilities.

During the air raid exercises, military and paramilitary participants used electromagnetic monitoring devices, GPS and Internet-based technologies to communicate with each other and conduct simulated warfare.