Happy National Day or Mid-Autumn Festival or Whatever

It's China's 60th birthday today! Hooray! Bring on the fireworks! Today is the start of Golden Week, when everyone celebrates the founding of the P.R.C. It coincides with the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, and is a really good excuse for people to take off about a week from work. Most expats use it as a chance to escape the city for tropical locations -- but since most of those tropical locations are currently under typhoon warnings or worse, we're pretty glad we stayed home.

So how did we celebrate the advance of China's glorious society? We ordered in McDonald's and watched the parade on TV. It's been raining all week, Betsy's been sick, and I'm starting to get it. Besides, we learned great facts about the country:

-- The P.R.C. flag was selected by committee. The red represents the spirit of the revolution, and the yellow of the stars represents brightness and -- according to the historian on CCTV, I kid you not -- the color of the Chinese people's skin. The large star represents Beijing, and the four smaller stars represent the four classes of people united under communism. I cannot make this stuff up.

-- Also about the flag: The official flag-raising ceremony is timed to 2.7 seconds, the amount of time it takes for the sun to rise on the horizon.

-- The lyrics to the national anthem that all those triumphant Chinese athletes were singing in Beijing last summer? The song is from a movie. The Chinese national anthem is a movie theme song! It's called "March of the Volunteers", and the movie was about soldiers called up to fight in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

Arise! All who refuse to be slaves!
Let our flesh and blood become our new Great Wall!
As the Chinese nation faces its greatest peril,
All forcefully expend their last cries.
Arise! Arise! Arise!
Our million hearts beat as one,
Brave the enemy's fire, March on!
Brave the enemy's fire, March on!
March on! March on! On!

-- We don't really know how female Chinese soldiers fight in these boots:
(Picture from CNN.com)


Anyway, we will spend the rest of Golden Week relaxing, hanging out with friends, and NOT eating mooncakes. They are not good.