Veterans' descendants were made to march in the Sept. 3 military parade in uniform. (Photo : Reuters)
Bearing in mind that it might be his only chance to be included in a grand military parade, 23-year-old Liu Zhaowi has pushed himself to the limit during training.
The so-called V-Day Parade will celebrate a momentous event: the 70th anniversary of China's victory over Japan and of the end of World War II. Hence, hard-core preparations are being done by the involved troops to meet high-performance standards.
Liu, who is one of the over-10,000 servicemen and women who will march at the historic Tian'anmen Square in Beijing, said, "It might be my only chance to be in this kind of parade. I must cherish it and have no regrets."
The soldiers are expected to deliver a world-class parade along with about 500 military vehicles and 200 aircraft on Sept. 3.
Wang Shun, deputy chief of staff of the Beijing Military Area Command and parade command deputy director, shared that units who were tapped to participate have selected their best soldiers and started training in their local bases.
The participating soldiers came to Beijing on June 10 for a series rigid group training.
"The heads, hands, guns, legs, and hats of each line of soldiers must be level and the formation must have a clear transverse line, vertical line and diagonal line," said Liu Shixu, chief coach of one of the 50 formations joining the parade.
Zu Dongge, chief of the artillery salute team, further revealed that the servicemen who were chosen as part of his group needed to rehearse their movements a thousand times a day in order to neatly and uniformly fire the salute.
Wang also added that the involved troops were instructed to not blink as they pass the symbolic Tian'anmen Rostrum to not ruin the impression of uniformity.
Meanwhile, the training for the parade has also adopted new technologies, such as the domestically developed GPS, Beidou Navigation Satellite System, and high-speed digital cameras.
