China’s largest-ever military parade has gotten underway in the heart of the capital, Beijing, to mark 60 years of communist rule. Hundreds of thousands of marchers, batteries of goose-stepping soldiers and weaponry from drone missiles to amphibious assault vehicles gathered at and Tiananmen Square and Chang’an avenue as a 60 gun-salute started off the proceedings. Festivities surrounding the founding of the People’s Republic will feature President Hu Jintao reviewing chanting troops, a flyover by domestically made fighter jets — including the first batch of women pilots — and tens of thousands of students flipping cards to make pictures. Sixty floats celebrating last year’s Beijing Olympics, China’s manned space program and other symbols of progress will follow the military convoy along the parade route through Tiananmen Square. The display is meant to underscore what the leadership calls the “revival of the great Chinese nation.”