Standing straight and steady for an hour, no blinking allowed for 40 seconds. These are by no means simple endurance tests for ordinary people, but are a part of normal life for hundreds of soldiers taking part in the Tian'anmen Square-Chang'an Avenue military parade on China's National Day.
Soldiers from the Second Artillery Corps of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) now stationed in several camps on the outskirts of Beijing, they said "precision" was the exact word to describe their everyday life.
The soldiers are going through rigorous training for the massive National Day parade on Oct. 1 in downtown Beijing.
In training, the maximum time discrepancy allowed for military vehicle drivers exceeds no more than a quarter of a second.
To monitor the timing, experts are using electronic devices to detect the speed of each vehicle -- and displacement restrictors to moderate speed -- to achieve uniformity.
"Shou Zhang Hao"(Hail to the Chief) and " Wei Ren Min Fu Wu"(It's to serve the people), two sentences of only eight Chinese characters that will be the responses to military chiefs' greetings during the national military review, are practiced thousands of times until they are perfect.
Skillful and delicate craftsmanship is also required in army manoeuvers. Military trainers told Xinhua Wednesday movements had been practiced hundreds of times. .
But the most challenging endurance test takes place in drivers' cabs in times of high temperatures. Heat in the cabs can reach to nearly a scorching 60 degrees Celsius. To achieve uniformity of the parade vehicles, soldiers, even during practice, choose to operate them without air conditioners and, after hours of practice, are soaked in sweat.
Wang Puze, a phalanx pivot, said each soldier on average had worn out two training uniforms and three pairs of leather shoes during five months of training.
A full day of training exhausts the soldiers. Yet they maintain strict discipline and not allowed to leave training camps.
During interviews, soldiers said they sometimes felt lonely but that they found ways to overcome the problem.
Bands composed of military vocalists and instrumentalists, speech contests and organized parties served as entertainment during spare time. When bands played popular songs, their audiences sang along.
In a separate camp, soldiers have built an intranet and selected bulletin board system (BBS) management staff. The entertainment talent of individuals is being fully exploited here.
Soldier Pan Jian has recently risen to fame by blogging the life of his companions. During training, he would instruct several fellows to pick up still and digital videos cameras to film the life of the soldiers and upload the information to his blog.
"Computer games, messaging on BBS and web surfing -- these were simply unimaginable during previous parade training," said Liu Weijun, a veteran of the parades who participated in the military review in 1999 to mark the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.
The change, to some extent, is attributed to an increasing number of well-educated soldiers being recruited into the army, says Lin Limin, head of another formation group.
He said most of the participants in his team were holders of college degrees.
Other recreational activities in the training camps include shadow-boxing, waist drumming originating from northern Shanxi Province and unarmed combat displays.
Cui Li, the political commissar of a square array, said the cultural activities "with distinctive Chinese characteristics", had made the training more interesting and enabled the soldiers to improve the quality of their learning.
Life in the training camp is short, but the glorious tradition and the honor of taking part in the military parade would be cherished for a long time, he said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2009)
