China's 60th birthday bash: precision engineered

摘要

After around 109 years of foreign hegemony, the People's Republic of China was born on Oct. 1, 1949, in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and to celebrate that momentous occasion, the country recently showed off its homegrown military might to the world in what was a display of precision and perfection. Besides a phalanx of nuclear missile carriers, rocket launchers, and tanks, among other military hardware, a 5000-strong goose-stepping procession took pride of place on the day. Split into 56 squares of personnel to reflect the 56 ethnic groups that make up China's 1.3 billion people, the height of each square member was within 6 cm of his nearby compatriots. And keeping with the sixes, the shoulder-to-shoulder distance was maintained at 60 mm. Oh and yes, marching speed was pegged at a lightning 116 steps per minute.