National Day of the People's Republic of China
The holiday is associated with large military parades in Beijing. The leaders of the Chinese Communist Party give speeches and watch from Tian'anmen, the southern gate of the Forbidden City, and millions of Chinese people watch from Tian'anmen Square and on television. China no longer has these parades every year, but the idea now is to have a smaller parade every 5th anniversary and a larger parade every 10th anniversary. When these parades occur, the city tries very hard to keep everyone safe and to make the event look good. For the 2009 parade, the city police added 1,120,000 volunteers to patrol the streets. 50,000 policemen and women worked more than 25 hours without stopping for rest or sleep.