Beijing shuts down to prepare for parade, party

updated 3:40 p.m. ET Sept. 18, 2009

BEIJING - Police cleared streets and office buildings in parts of China's capital Friday for a full dress rehearsal of celebrations for 60 years of communist rule, touching off a mixture of excitement and resentment among ordinary Chinese told to stay away.

Patrons and employees spilled out on to the streets from offices, shops and restaurants shortly after lunch, hustling to subways and buses to meet a curfew in all-but name. Tactical police units with automatic rifles and paramilitary police lined thoroughfares as camouflaged tanks, trucks bearing intercontinental ballistic missiles and parade floats with models of the Great Hall of the People rumbled toward Tiananmen Square for a late-night practice for the Oct. 1 parade.

There were no crowds to cheer. The convoys passed sidewalks empty except for security. Notices went out earlier in the week politely suggesting that people working in the no-go zones leave by late afternoon and people living there stay home.

Still, the curious craned from side streets for a glimpse, sometimes in frustration. "We can't watch. They won't let us," said Yang Weiying, a waitress at a restaurant, pointing to a line of police and orange-vested civilian volunteers down the street. "It's very upsetting."

Parade should rival Olympics
The parade with its displays of mass precision and military firepower is likely to delight and inspire patriotism when it's broadcast live nationwide. It's a spectacle to rival last year's roundly praised Beijing Olympic Games opening ceremony. Some 200,000 people will perform, among them 80,000 primary and secondary school students who will flip cards on cue to form pictures and Chinese characters.

Many Chinese are justifiably proud of what China has achieved since the People's Republic was founded in 1949 — a transformation from an impoverished, war-wracked country to an economic and diplomatic power. "The motherland everyday gets greater and stronger. I'm truly happy," said Zhang Lianfa, a middle-age worker, milling about a neighborhood of four-story apartment buildings as mechanized artillery rattled by a block away.

The heavy security is partly an attempt to keep under wraps key features of the parade to build suspense for the celebrations and partly intended to prevent any disruptions. The government is worried about a spillover from the recent ethnic unrest in its volatile western region of Xinjiang as well as trouble from petitioners who pour into the capital to complain about local injustices.

But the painstaking preparations are also underscoring a gulf between the Communist Party leadership, which wants nothing to go amiss during the high-profile anniversary, and Beijing residents empowered by rising living standards.

Some in the capital have complained about the security restrictions and preparations that exclude the public and harken back to an earlier Soviet-style era. State media have hyped the sacrifices soldiers are making for the parade.

Among those profiled are thousands of troops who have spent the past four months drilling to march in step on a practice ground that features a full-scale model of the Avenue of Eternal Peace and the leadership reviewing stand they will march before.

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