BEIJING, May 8. /TASS/. At least 350 people took part in the Immortal Regiment rally in Beijing, which took place at Russian Embassy in China. According to embassy employees, the rally was attended by citizens of Russia, CIS countries and China.
At 10:30 local time, the parade started moving. The participants paraded near the fountain at the embassy main building and followed to the upper garden, where a festive concert happened later.
"The fact that we are here today, proves the preservation of historic memory," Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov said, speaking before the participants. "Today, in the 21st century, this is particularly important, and becomes ever more important every year: to hand over this memory that we received from our fathers, grandfathers and grand-grandfathers. This is the main point of our meeting today.
Due to the complicated epidemiological situation, the rally took place at the embassy this year.
"The Immortal Regiment rally has been hosted for several years already. Beijing authorities look very favorable at this, and we organized it at different parts of the city [before]," Denisov told TASS. He explained that Beijing authorities authorized the rally this year as well, but asked to limit the number of participants to 50 people, as per city regulations.
"We had to refuse our Chinese friends’ proposal, because many more citizens of Russia, CIS states and China, including veterans, would like to take part," he continued. "This is why we decided to host the event at the embassy. And, as you can see, we did it."
Initially, the rally was organized at the Nanguan Park in 2016. In the following years, the rally took place in other parts of Beijing.