BEIJING -- The birthday party for a billion people comes Friday when the the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrates its 90th anniversary.
Yet many official activities and completely voluntarily personal celebrations have been underway well ahead of the day.
In southwest Sichuan Province, a group of elderly people sing revolutionary songs. Some play musical instruments such as the electronic keyboard and Chinese lute, while others dance, waving their fans.
Their leader, 70-year-old Li Changrong, made hand-written copies of more than 300 songs.
In the Fangshan district of Beijing, 62-year-old Liu Xiuhua spent a week making a double-sized embroidery of the party flag.
In Langfang of north Hebei Province, 69-year-old Yuan Jintong spent 46 years collecting paper clips, photos, books and badges--a personal scrapbook capturing the history of the Communist Party. Yuan is considering exhibiting his collection.
Revolutionary songs are heard from the Yangtze River to the Tibetan Plateau, while a movie about the birth of the Party, "Beginning of the Great Revival," raked in 200 million yuan in a fortnight.
In east Zhejiang Province, a new memorial opened Thursday in memory of the first National Congress of the Party. The memorial covers 2.73 hectares near Nanhu Lake in Jiaxing and features more than 800 items from the first party members.
Nine decades ago, 13 individuals met and founded the Communist Party in a brick-and-wood building in the French concession area of Shanghai, though the meeting was eventually moved to a boat on Nanhu Lake.
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