Facts of PLA honor guards
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 9, 2015
The guard of honor of the three services of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) will make its official debut on Saturday at a Victory Day parade at Red Square in Moscow.
The 112-member PLA guard of honor arrived here late April and started training and rehearsing for the parade marking the 70th anniversary of the victory of World War II.
The Chinese soldiers are between 18 and 34 years old and all at least 6 feet 2 inches tall.
China and Russia, two major battlefields in WWII, made historical contributions to the eventual defeat of fascist forces.
China's participation in the parade, a landmark event in China-Russia military exchanges, shows the strength of bilateral ties and their resolve to safeguard world peace.
Nine other countries -- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Serbia and Tajikistan -- also dispatched their military units, all in 70-strong formation, to Russia.
In previous rehearsals for the event, the uniformed Chinese servicemen strode forward in strict formation with a valiant posture and synchronized steps, drawing applause from both their foreign counterparts and Russian audience.
During a night rehearsal on April 29, the Chinese soldiers marched with famous Russian song "Katyusha" as background music in a show of respect to veterans of the Great Patriotic War, the Russian term of WWII.
As a matter of fact, it is the fifth time that the PLA guard of honor has marched on foreign soil.
In 2013, the Chinese guard of honor marched in Mexico City in a military parade marking the 203th anniversary of Mexico's independence and the 100th birthday of the Mexican Army.
Also in Mexico, a 34-member Chinese team staged a stunning performance at the host country's independence bicentennial in 2011, the first time for PLA honor guard to participate in a military parade abroad.
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