A military parade and celebrations will be held in central Beijing Thursday to mark six decades Wednesday since the founding of People's Republic of China, also known as Modern China, when the communists seized power. Here are some facts about the occasion: 1. Sixty years ago Mao Zedong stood before a sea of people atop Tiananmen Gate proclaiming the founding of the People's Republic of China. The communists' victory had vanquished the Nationalist regime, withstood the vicious onslaught of the Japanese invasion and overturned the century of foreign encroachment on China's territory. 2. As Modern China commemorates its 60th anniversary, it seemingly has much to celebrate. China is the world's most populous and industrious nation, is the world's third largest economy and trading nation, has become a global innovator in science and technology, and is building a world-class university system. It also has an increasingly modern military. 3. The Party's origins lie in Shanghai, and over the past month, groups of the Party faithful have been ushered into a modest red-beamed dining room to see where the revolution was hatched. 4. The event Thursday marks six decades since Chairman Mao solemnly announced the founding of the People's Republic in front of 300,000 cheering supporters. Millions of Communist Party officials, students and workers have feverishly fine-tuned parades and firework displays on a scale that will dwarf the Beijing Olympics. 5. Special “parade villages” have been set up at military airfields outside the capital to drill the tens of thousands of marching soldiers, with officers on hand to measure the height of their goose-steps. President Hu Jintao will arrive in a newly-commissioned super-stretch limousine, 19 ft-long, to watch over 180,000 people will parade down the capital's main avenue into Tiananmen Square. __
