Golden dragons formed by fireworks rose above the Tian'anmen Square about half an hour after the National Day evening gala began Thursday in Beijing.

The vivid fireworks dragons flew over about 60,000 people cheering and dancing on the square.

The crowd burst into an exclamation of surprise and admiration. Many of them were residents from Beijing's districts. They had practiced dancing for about a month.

"We took lessons once or twice every week in the past month. The training was organized by our neighborhood residents' committee," said a lady dressed in a Tibetan traditional female robe in her fifties. Her neighborhood in Haidian district in northwest Beijing offered a performance of Tibetan dance.

On the 2,000-square-meter screen at the southern end of the square, fireworks formed a series of "motion pictures" that desert turns into oasis and spring bubbles in the sunshine.

Soon after the fireworks dragon disappeared in the dark sky, about a dozen cloth "dragons" turned up on the ground, carried by dancers and accompanied by more than 120 "lions". The traditional dragon and lion dance highlighted the theme of this part of the performance, the takeoff of China.

(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2009)