President Hu Jintao joined in 200,000 local people in Beijing Friday to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
At 9:00 AM, Hu, who took over as chairman of the Central Military Commission last month, appeared in the Zhongshan (Yat-sen) Park, in central Beijing, when young children clad in festive dress began dancing to the tune of welcoming music, while hundreds of pigeons and numerous balloons were set free to fly into the skies.
Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, first visited an exhibition dubbed as "Tibetan people are singing". A young Tibetan woman presented him with Hada (a white-colored silk ribbon used by Tibetans as a traditional gift for guests) and Tibetan food and wine.
Hu showed his heartfelt happiness about the enormous changes the Tibet Autonomous Region has experienced over the past five decades. He called on Tibetan people to promote economic and social development as well as to safeguard social stability.
Hu worked as Party chief in Tibet between 1988-92.
Afterwards, he had a meeting with some model workers from different fields, in front of the statue of Sun Yat-sen, who led a democratic revolutionary to topple the last feudalistic Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in the early 20th century.
Hu shook hands with the model workers, saying that China's great achievements in the past 55 years are inseparable with the working class.
Then, he stopped over nearby a pavilion, where several elementary students were working on a painting roll titled "I'm growing up along with the motherland."
"Now, you are drawing the beautiful future scenario of the motherland with your paintbrush," he said to the children, "I hope that you will be able to materialize the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with your own hands."
Later, Hu visited some other young children who were showing their skills in making handicrafts. Cao Wenxiang, a 16-year old student from a local special education school for handicapped children, gave one of his own products -- a soft-ceramic necklace to the president. Hu accepted the present and encouraged the handicapped students to be self-reliant, improve their own abilities, and contribute to the country's development when they grow up.
During his stay, the president also watched singing and dancing performances, visited exhibitions on "Building up and Implementing a Scientific View of Development" and "New Beijing, Great Olympics", respectively.
Hu advocated a scientific view of development, calling it a change the Party has made on the issue of development and a summary of the practice and experience for China since its founding in 1949, and in particular since the launching of the reform and opening up drive in the late 1970s.
He also showed his support to the government's macro-economic control measures this year. "It has further proved the correctness of a scientific view of development and it is compatible with the realities of our country," he noted.
The leader highlighted the importance to implement the Important Thought of "Three Represents" and the goal to achieve an overall well-off society. He called for being more self-conscious and firm in carrying out a scientific view of development and adhering to a scientific view of development in practice, so as to achieve a faster and better development in China.
(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2004)
