An elderly surnamed Ge took a two-hour ride Saturday from the suburbs to downtown Beijing to show his respects to the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

 

Ge lined up with hundreds of others outside the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall in Tiananmen Square, where lies the embalmed body of the late leader, in order to show his reverence to him on Saturday, the 30th anniversary of his death.

 

"Every year on this date I have lots of words that I want to tell Chairman Mao, so I left home before dawn for this hall," said Ge.

 

"I wanted to tell Chairman Mao that all my four sons had found jobs after graduating from college, and I, a farmer, have nothing to worry about in my late years."

 

Like Ge, hundreds of thousands of Chinese across the country showed their respects in different forms on Saturday to this founder of the People's Republic of China.

 

In Shaoshan, hometown of Mao, visitors and local residents paid tribute to him at the Former Residence of Chairman Mao.

 

Tang Ruiren, owner of the Maojia Restaurant in her 70s, still recites Mao's works and quotations every day when she welcomes visitors.

 

"We hope that China will keep unswervingly to the policies of the reform and opening up to strengthen the nation and enrich the people," said Tang, who still wears a badge of Chairman Mao.

 

In the first half of this year, visitors to Shaoshan, central China's Hunan Province, reached two million, according to local government sources.

 

Construction of a museum which will showcase personal possessions of the late Chinese leader and other related relics has begun in Shaoshan.

 

A memorial hall built by a retired couple in central China's Henan Province also attracted visitors from other areas of the province.

 

Qi Chunxin, 71, and her 74-year-old husband Zhang Yongjian returned to Kouzhuang Village of Yuzhou City after their retirement and began to collect reports, pictures and badges about Chairman Mao.

 

They completed building a museum of Chairman Mao in 2001 and enlarged the museum in 2003.

 

"We should not forget Chairman Mao, for we would not have lived a happy life today but for efforts of Chairman Mao and other late leaders," said Qi.

 

Teenagers and young people also paid tribute to Chairman Mao on an Internet memorial for him.

 

"Thirty years have passed, and I have come to know why Chinese people, including my parents, mourned so much at the death of Chairman Mao at that time -- the chairman was a great figure that had been serving the people heart and soul," said a text message left on the memorial by netizen Li Shan.

 

Chairman Mao's relatives commemorating

the 30th anniversary of Mao's death

 

 

Chairman Mao's relatives commemorating

the 30th anniversary of Mao's death

 

Chairman Mao's relatives commemorating

the 30th anniversary of Mao's death

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2006)