This is the flag-hoisting ceremony at Tian'anmen Square. The 59th anniversary of founding of the People's Republic of China, which fell on Wednesday, was celebrated by people from different walks of life across the country. At Tian'anmen Square, the heart of the national capital of Beijing, some 190,000 people from different part of the country gathered early on Wednesday to attend a special flag-hoisting ceremony marking the occasion. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

BEIJING, Oct.1 (Xinhua) --The 59th anniversary of founding of the People's Republic of China, which fell on Wednesday, was celebrated by people from different walks of life across the country.

At Tian'anmen Square, the heart of the national capital, a record high of 190,000 people from different part of the country gathered early Wednesday to observe a special National Flag-hoisting ceremony.

This is the flag-hoisting ceremony at Tian'anmen Square. The 59th anniversary of founding of the People's Republic of China, which fell on Wednesday, was celebrated by people from different walks of life across the country. At Tian'anmen Square, the heart of the national capital of Beijing, some 190,000 people from different part of the country gathered early on Wednesday to attend a special flag-hoisting ceremony marking the occasion. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

Most of the visitors who swarmed to the square beginning midnight and stayed overnight were college freshmen. They just wanted to watch the ceremony as near as they could be.

They sat on the square in groups, playing poker or electronic games while waiting for the red flag with five stars to rise at 6:10 a.m..

The flag rose to the tune of the national anthem. When it reached the top of the mast under the hot gaze of the visitors, 10,000 pigeons signaling good wishes were released into the air from both sides of the Golden Bridge right before the Tian'anmen Gate.

"Happy birthday to China," yelled students from Beijing Science, Technology and Management College, a vocational school. One said, "seeing the red flag rise with the tune of the heart-stirring national anthem, we felt happy, excited and proud."

"Tears started to trickle down my face when I heard the national anthem," said Wang Hai, a migrant worker from the earthquake-hit Sichuan Province.

"When my home town was struck by a powerful quake in May, people from other parts of the country stood by us and aids poured in," said Wang, who now works in Beijing. "I am proud of China."

Chang Aoxue, a rural woman from north China's Shanxi Province, also joined the flag-raising crowd with her two-year-old baby daughter.

"I came here together with my girl to show my gratitude to the Party for encouraging the implementation of a policy saying getting rich is glorious, and good wishes to the motherland," said Chang,"

The celebration in capital peaked when Chinese Party and government leaders, led by Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and also Chinese President, laid floral baskets before the Monument to People's Heroes on Wednesday morning Wednesday morning.

A group of students from Weishan Middle School in Tianjin, Tianjin, a mega city not far away from Beijing, on Wednesday chose to visit a photo exhibition, featuring Five-Star Flag Flutters in the Wind, at Tianjin Museum.

Down south, more than 800 people in east China's Jiangsu Province participated a ceremony held inside the Yuhuatai Cemetery for the martyrs in Nanjing, provincial capital of Jiangsu, at 8 a.m.

Among the participants were local officials from Jiangsu provincial government and city officials of Nanjing, school students, military officers and soldiers, as well as representatives of ordinary residents in the city.

People salute during the flag-hoisting ceremony at Tian'anmen Square. The 59th anniversary of founding of the People's Republic of China, which fell on Wednesday, was celebrated by people from different walks of life across the country. At Tian'anmen Square, the heart of the national capital of Beijing, some 190,000 people from different part of the country gathered early on Wednesday to attend a special flag-hoisting ceremony marking the occasion. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

Apart from placing wreaths of fresh Flowers the Monument for martyrs, participants also observed one minute of silence and encircled the monument, with The Internationale played as the backdrop.

In Guangzhou, a key city in south China, more than 1,000 people attended a memorial service staged in Guangzhou Uprising Martyr Cemetery Park on Wednesday.

Led by Wang Yang, Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and Huang Huahua, Governor of Guangdong, the participants attended a National Flag-raising ceremony. Wang and Huang also laid floral baskets in front of the Monument for Martyrs in Guangzhou Uprising.

Southwestward, the commemorative ceremony in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, began at 10 a.m. at the square near the Potala Palace, an iconic architecture in the city.

Some 5,000 people attended Wednesday's flag-raising activity held in this plateau city of sunshine. Among them, Nyima Cering, a resident from Xueju neighborhood in Lhasa, is a regular visitor to the annual event.

"Through Lhasa unrest in March, I cherish the more the hard-to-get life at the moment, and I also understand a happy and stable life comes above all," said the middle-aged Tibetan man.

After that, the masses, led by Party and government authorities of Tibet, also paid tribute to revolutionary martyrs by laying floral baskets before the monument built in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the peaceful liberation of Tibet.

(Correspondents of Xinhua's local bureaus contributed to this report)