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At three o’clock on October 1st, 1949, 300,000 people held a ceremony in Tian’an Men Square to celebrate the founding of People’s Central Government of PRC. Chairman Mao Zedong gravely declared the founding of People’s Central Government and of PRC and personally hoisted the first five-star flag. He read out the Announcement of People’s Central Government of PRC, “People’s Central Government of PRC is the only legal government to stand for all people of PRC. Our government is willing to establish diplomatic relationship with any foreign government that agrees to abide by the principle of equality, mutual benefit, mutual respect for territorial integrity, and so on”. Then parade and folk procession were performed. Zhu De- Commander in chief-inspected marine, land and air force and announced Order of Chinese People’s Liberation Army Headquarter, ordering the army to promptly clear all remaining armed forces of Kuomintang and to liberate all land that hasn’t been liberated yet. On the same day, Beijing Xinhua broadcasting station conducted in Tian’an Men Square a live broadcast of the founding ceremony of PRC. That was the 1st large-scale live broadcast history of Chinese people, other broadcasting stations all over China broadcasting synchronously.

October 1st, 1949, is the commemoration day of the founding of New China. It should be stated that in the opinion of many, a founding ceremony was held in Tian’an Men Square on that day that accommodated hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians. But in fact this impression is not accurate, because the ceremonies in Tian’an Men Square on October 1st, 1949, were establishing ceremonies of People’s Central Government of PRC but not founding ceremonies of the country. As a matter of fact, the founding of PRC was announced a week before October 1st, which was September 21st, 1949. On that day, Mao Zedong-director of preparation the founding on New China in the opening address in the first session of the conference.

Then what about the National Day of October 1st? On the first meeting of national committee’s first session of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, some representative said “the founding of PRC should have a day for celebration. So I hope this session will decide October 1st as national holiday”. Mao Zedong replied, “We have to propose to the government for it to decide”. December 3rd, 1949, the fourth session of People’s Central Government committee passed Decision on National Holiday of PRC, stipulating that October 1st would be national holiday every year and this day was also affirmed to be the day of announcing the founding of PRC. From 1950, October 1st every year has been a highly celebrated holiday for people of all nationalities in China.

National holiday of PRC started from October 1st, 1949, and celebrations every year were given much political meaning. Before 1970, as major part of celebration, state banquet, military parade, fireworks and parade were held every year. There were grand meeting in Tian’an Men Square as well as in all provinces, regions and counties. In each meeting leaders of all levels made speech and workers, farmers and representatives of liberation army made speeches, fully expressing the love of people of walks for PRC. After the meeting there was usually a parade. Excited people held colorful triangular flags and shouted slogans when parading along streets for celebration.

In addition, when New China was founded, PRC Political Consultative Committee decide to list military parade as a major program in national holiday ceremony. From the founding ceremony, 13 military parades were held in the past 54 national holidays.

In 1960, the government decided to have “minor celebration every five years and major celebration every ten years with military parade” on the principle of economic construction. On celebration, no military parade was held, considering the negative influence of deploying armies and limitation of national finance. 1979 was the 30th holiday which was also a major celebration, but reform and opening up just started and all waited to be recovered and reconstructed, so no military parade was held either. However, the government held a 4,000 people state banquet and all major parks had brand park-tour activities. Up to 1984, China had not had military parades on national holidays for 24 years in row. Based on Deng Xiaoping’s suggestion, who was then the national leader, Chinese government decided to resume military parade and held a large scale military parade ceremony in Tian’an Men Square that year, the 35th anniversary of the founding of PRC.

At the end of August 2004, Chinese government made new arrangements as to how to celebrate national holiday. That was the third time that government asked to celebrate economically after the founding of New China. In that year, the major arrangement of national holiday in Beijing included reception banquet, large-scale theatrical evening in celebration of the 55th anniversary of PRC, park-tour activities, theme activities about education of patriotism and revolutionary traditions for youths, and so on.

Since 2000, national holiday lasts seven days. Beside, economy is getting better and better, so people have larger room for choice in ways of relaxation and entertainment. More and more people choose to go on tours. They even go outside China to Southeastern Asia, Europe, North America, Japan, and so on for holidays. National holiday, Spring Festival and May Day holiday combine to create a situation where the three major “golden weeks for tourism” of the year co-exist and co-develop. They also give a push to the new “holiday economy” of tourism, transportation, telecom industry, gift industry, catering trade, and other industries that develop with the three major holidays.