China commemorates 159th birth anniversary of Sun Yat-sen

BEIJING -- China on Wednesday held a ceremony to mark the 159th birth anniversary of great national hero Sun Yat-sen at Zhongshan Park in central Beijing, a site named after him.

Hosted by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the event saw attendees paying tribute with flowers and bows in front of Sun's statue.

They include senior officials from the CPPCC National Committee, the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and the Beijing municipal government.

The ceremony was also attended by officials from the central committees of non-Communist parties, as well as representatives of prominent figures without party affiliation, the CPPCC Beijing municipal committee, Sun's descendants and some other organizations.

Born in 1866 in South China's Guangdong province, Sun was also deemed a great patriot and a great forerunner of China's democratic revolution. He played a leading role in the 1911 Revolution, which overthrew the imperial Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and ended more than 2,000 years of feudal rule in China.