Grand gala celebrates Party's 100th birthday

One hundred years is a figure that arouses awe, and with the country in a festive mood to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, a grand gala that aired on television on Thursday night allowed people to revisit milestones in the rise of the Party.

The gala was staged at Beijing's iconic National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, on Monday. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, joined around 20,000 audience members to watch the two-hour performance.

Titled "The Great Journey", the four-part epic traced the Party's century-long history from its revolutionary victories to the construction spree in the early days of the People's Republic of China and the unprecedented changes brought about by reform and opening-up in recent decades. Fireworks lit up the sky as the action climaxed.

Around half the stadium was turned into a huge stage, with giant screens and two oval-shaped revolving platforms vividly recreating awe-inspiring scenes, from battles in modern China's biggest wars to the nation's ending of extreme poverty, its battles against the severe acute respiratory syndrome and COVID-19, and the country's exploration of space.