BEIJING,
Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- An elderly surnamed Ge took a two-hour ride Saturday from
the suburbs to downtown Beijing to show his respects to the late Chinese leader
Mao Zedong.
Ge lined up with hundreds of others outside the
Chairman Mao Memorial Hall in Tiananmen Square, where lies the embalmed body of
the late leader, in order to show his reverence to him on Saturday, the 30th
anniversary of his death.
"Every year on this date I have lots of words that I
want to tell Chairman Mao, so I left home before dawn for this hall," said Ge.
"I wanted to tell Chairman Mao that all my four sons
had found jobs after graduating from college, and I, a farmer, have nothing to
worry about in my late years."
Like Ge, hundreds of thousands of
Chinese across the country showed their respects in different forms on Saturday to this
founder of the People's Republic of China.
In Shaoshan, hometown of Mao, visitors and local
residents paid tribute to him at the Former Residence of Chairman Mao.
Tang Ruiren, owner of the Maojia Restaurant in her
70s, still recites Mao's works and quotations every day when she welcomes
visitors.
"We hope that China will keep unswervingly to the
policies of the reform and opening up to strengthen the nation and enrich the
people, " said Tang, who still wears a badge of Chairman Mao.
In the first half of this year, visitors to Shaoshan,
central China's Hunan Province, reached two million, according to local
government sources.
Construction of a museum which will showcase personal
possessions of the late Chinese leader and other related relics has begun in
Shaoshan.
A memorial hall built by a retired couple in central
China's Henan Province also attracted visitors from other areas of the province.
Qi Chunxin, 71, and her 74-year-old husband Zhang
Yongjian returned to Kouzhuan Village of Yuzhou City after their retirement and
began to collect reports, pictures and badges about Chairman Mao.
They completed building a museum of Chairman Mao in
2001 and enlarged the museum in 2003.
"We should not forget Chairman Mao, for we would not
have lived a happy life today but for efforts of Chairman Mao and other late
leaders," said Qi.
Teenagers and young people also paid tribute to
Chairman Mao on an Internet memorial for him.
"Thirty years have passed, and I have come to know
why Chinese people, including my parents, mourned so much at the death of
Chairman Mao at that time -- the chairman was a great figure that had been
serving the people heart and soul," said a text message left on the memorial by
netizen Li Shan. Enditem
