The year 1978 is believed to be a watershed in reshaping China's fate and path as reformers led by Deng Xiaoping decided to open the country to the rest of the world and formulated a new economic model.

    Cheng Li, director of research of the John L. Thornton China Center of the Brookings Institution of the United States, said during the past six decades, China experienced terrible disasters, both natural and man-made.

    "What is truly remarkable is that despite all the pitfalls and problems of the past 60 years, the nation has not only survived, but is moving dramatically ahead and has emerged as an economic giant," he said.

    "Looking back over the past 60 years, we could notice that the so-called China model has an obvious feature, namely, the Chinese leaders and people could continuously amend their mistakes so as to achieve continuous development," he said.

    "As Deng Xiaoping said: wading across the river by feeling for stones. That's a very practical attitude and also China's own way of governing the country," he said.

    SOCIALIST VITALITY

    When the Communist leaders headed to Beijing in the cold spring of 1949 for the founding of the PRC, Mao told his colleagues that the trip to Beijing was like sitting a test and he hoped the Communists could get a high score.

    Sixty years later, Mao's successors turned in their answer sheet.

    China's gross domestic product (GDP) surpassed 30 trillion yuan (3.86 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2008, 77 times more than in 1952.

    China's illiteracy rate in the 15 to 45 age group has been brought down to 3.58 percent from more than 80 percent for Chinese adults when PRC was founded.

    Chinese people's average life expectancy increased from 35 60 years ago to 73 years now.

    The achievements were showcased by a massive civilian parade involving 43,000 people and 19 specially-decorated floats along Chang'an Avenue.

    Many Chinese celebrities showed up on the floats, drawing cheers from the spectators.

    Five astronauts including Zhai Zhigang, the first Chinese taikonaut to walk in outer space, appeared on a float.

    Zhai, dressed in his space suit, emerged from a simulated Shenzhou-7 capsule and waved a national flag, recreating his historical moment on Sept. 27, 2008.

    China has sent six astronauts into space since 2003 and plans to launch the Shenzhou-8 and Shenzhou-9 spacecraft in 2011. Zhai's20-minute space walk was believed to have helped pave the way for the country' s next space mission -- a space docking in 2011 and a manned space station in 2020.

    Sports stars and Olympic champions including star hurdler Liu Xiang waved to the spectators from atop floats, reminding people of China's Olympic glory.

    And there are ordinary people. Fan Aili, who joined the civilian parade, told Xinhua the most exciting thing for him was to perform on the same stage with his sister.

    "My little sister is in the women militia formation. I had never imagined that both of us could take part in the Naional Day celebration. That's a great honor for my family," Fan said.

    Chen Jiaqiang, a 20-year-old college student parader, said they gathered at school at midnight and arrived in Tian'anmen Square at 5 a.m.

    "We felt cold in the early morning, and some of us had to put on raincoats. But our enthusiasm has overwhelmed anything else," Chen said.

    Also on display were 34 floats representing mainland provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

    A total of 60 red lanterns and 56 huge 13.6-meter-tall columns, each representing a Chinese ethnic group, for the first time decorated the world's largest square.

    Marchers, dressed in unique clothes for different Chinese ethnic groups, danced to a well-known song eulogizing ethnic unity. Some dancers were from Tibet or Xinjiang, two autonomous regions that had witnessed riots and violences in the past two years.

    The float featuring "Treasured Island" Taiwan drew much attention from the spectators. Decorated with the Taipei 101 Towermodel and other landmarks, the float highlighted the improved cross-Strait relations between the mainland and Taiwan.

    "I am really shocked by the organizing work of the parade. The whole event proceeded very precisely and in an orderly way," said a Taiwan businessman, who only identified himself as Mr. Zhong.

    "It's a very rare opportunity to watch such a grand ceremony at such a close distance. I feel quite delighted," he said. His IT service company came to the mainland eight years ago.

    "I am more interested in the civilian parade that portraits possible ways for China's development in the future, as it's important to our children. Perhaps my children will also pursue their personal development in the mainland," he said.

    For the first time since 1949, a formation of foreigners joined China's National Day parade.

    More than 20 foreigners, wearing Chinese-style dresses or their national costumes, appeared atop a float themed "One World".

    The formation aimed to show that the Chinese people were praying for world peace and development, along with people from the rest of the world, organizers said.

    "Socialist China has found a vigorous road to modernization through wide and profound transformations, which demonstrate to the world the superiority and vitality of the socialist system," said an editorial of the People's Daily on Thursday.

    "Our great goals are to build a higher-level, well-off society that benefits more than 1 billion people by 2021, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and to build a prosperous, democratic, civilized and harmonious socialist modern country by 2049, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China," it said.

    For many Chinese, Thursday's anniversary parade means more thana chance to stir up their national pride, it is a declaration to the world that China was no longer haunted by various gloomy forecasts.

    The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, following the political turmoil in China in the summer of 1989, led Westerners to doubt the sustainability of China's "socialist road with Chinese characteristics".

    In 1994, Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute of the USA, painted in his report "Who will feed China" a gloomy picture, saying that the country with the largest population in the world would be inevitably become famine-stricken which would cause international chaos and bring havoc to the human race.

    Again, China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 prompted Western scholars to question the sustainability of its economic development.

    Gordon Chang, a lawyer who worked for two decades in China and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen, predicted in 2003 the extreme difficulties the country faced would lead to the "coming collapse of China". According to his scenario, China could not sustain itself for five years and a total collapse was going to occur before the torch of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was lit.

    Years have passed. The strong growth of China's economy, especially during the global economic downturn, runs contrary to the nonsayers.

    In his book titled "When China Rules the World: the Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World", Martin Jacques says that continental in size and mentality, China's long history, huge population, racial homogeneity and confidence in the centrality of its own civilization make for a country that will remain highly distinct and capable of redefining what it is to be modern.

    Hundreds of millions of Chinese watched the grand celebration on TV or the Internet.

    Online forums were abuzz with comments on the National Day celebration. More than 1.3 million netizens left comments on sina.com.cn, a major Chinese news portal.

    Many expressed their pride in the country's significant achievements and wished for a more prosperous and strong China. Some also said China is still facing severe challenges and 60 years is just the first step in the long march to the country's full rejuvenation.

    Outside China, the celebration also drew the attention of China watchers, who are trying to interpret the messages conveyed by the celebration.

    "I think China wants to convey to the world that China's coming-of-age is a reality, not a prediction," Li of the Brookings Institution said.

    (Xinhua reporter Miao Xiaojuan, Wang Chong and Tian Ye have contributed to the story)

Special Report: 60th Anniversary of Founding of PRC