The body of the late former Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji was cremated on Tuesday at Babaoshan in Beijing. In mourning for Zhu Rongji, Beijing’s Tiananmen held a half-mast flag-lowering ceremony immediately after the flag-raising at 5:28 AM this morning.
Zhu Rongji passed away in Beijing at 11:06 AM on the 12th, at the distinguished age of 98. According to official Chinese announcements, today the flags will be flown at half-mast at Tiananmen, Xinhua Gate, the Great Hall of the People, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as at the locations of party and government organs in all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. The Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions, all border crossings, major international airports and seaports, and Chinese embassies and consulates worldwide will also lower their flags in mourning.
As it is the summer holiday season, reservations for the Tiananmen flag-raising ceremony are almost fully booked every day. This morning, reporters observed large crowds of people gathered with reservations to watch the flag-lowering ceremony in front of Tiananmen Square and along Chang'an Avenue. Before the ceremony began, traffic control had already been implemented along Chang'an Avenue, but the ceremony could still be seen from the sides.
At 5:28 AM, after the national flag was raised to the top of the pole, it was immediately lowered to a position where the distance from the top of the pole to the bottom of the flag was about half the length of the flag, thus completing the half-mast ceremony. Many people who had parked along both sides of Chang'an Avenue due to traffic controls also took out their phones to record the event.
This morning, Zhu Rongji's body was cremated at Beijing's Babaoshan. The atmosphere around Babaoshan was noticeably different from usual, with public security police, armed police, plainclothes security personnel, and police vehicles dispersed in the area, creating a highly guarded scene.