A comida é fabulosa, a simpatia é inacreditável e a atenção ao detalhe extraordinária.
NEWSPAPER EDITION
BEIJING — Domesticated pigeons of this city, take note: Until Oct. 1, you are prohibited by government edict from flying over the center ofChina's capital. Do not take it personally, however. The government is preparing to observe the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China with a parade that will make 76 trombones look like a child's plastic kazoo. And nothing — not unauthorized window-peeping, nor marchers' mental health, nor even the chance that pigeons might muck up displays of aerial might — is being left to chance.
China's government at times resembles an exasperated parent trying to rein in a pack of rebellious children. Its edicts are persistently flouted by censor-dodging Internet users, wayward local officials and rioting Uighurs.
But when it comes to the impending National Daycelebration in Beijing, the government appears fully in control. When swarms of soldiers, throngs of tanks and flocks of floats roll past Tiananmen Square on Thursday, 10,000 police officers and security guards will monitor Beijing street corners and checkpoints for evidence of potential party-spoilers. As many as 800,000 volunteers have also been enlisted to help maintain security.
Knife sales have been banned in at least some stores. Beijing's international airport will be closed Thursday for three hours. Along the parade route, the authorities have forbidden parade-watchers from opening windows or standing on balconies.
Three journalists from the Japanese Kyodo news agency said that when they stood on a hotel balcony to cover a Sept. 18 parade rehearsal, the authorities stormed into the room and assaulted them. A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the journalists ignored explicit instructions not to report the event, apparently out of concern that details of the spectacle would be revealed.
And it will be a spectacle. Nearly 5,000 of China's 2.3 million soldiers will march past the nation's leaders. They will be grouped partly according to height, with no variation of more than six centimeters, or about two and a half inches.
Next will come rows of rumbling tanks and vehicles mounted with missiles, satellites and military equipment. More than 150 planes will fly in formation overhead, some trailing colored vapors.
Liang Guanglie, the Chinese defense minister, has said the parade will demonstrate that China now has weaponry as sophisticated as developed nations have — and that the matériel is now manufactured in China.
"This is an extraordinary achievement that speaks to the level of our military's modernization and the huge change in our country's technological strength," Mr. Liang said in remarks posted on his ministry's Web site.
Another senior military commander said intercontinental missiles capable of bearing nuclear warheads would be "remarkable symbols" of China's military might.
The Olympics that dazzled spectators last year showed China's knack for meticulous preparation. Participants in the Thursday parade have engaged in similarly intense drills for months, according to reports in the Chinese news media.
Soldiers have practiced endless hours to hold their rifles at precisely the same level. Photos show their instructors holding threads as rifle guides, or sticking needles in soldiers' shirt collars, pointed at their necks, to correct poor posture.
They have trained to stand motionless for a solid hour, to refrain from swaying during the second hour and not to collapse after three hours, reported Xinhua, the state-run news agency.
They have been schooled in shouting phrases in perfect unison: "Serve the people!" and "Hello, senior leader!" They are also expected not to blink for 40 seconds at a time.
Mental-health professionals have been called in to help those whose performance is not up to snuff. As of Sept. 12, 1,300 soldiers had received counseling, Xinhua reported.
To limit the risk of a security lapse, cities and provinces outside Beijing have been told to cancel plans for parades or mass gatherings on Oct. 1.
Foreign tourists have been banned from Tibet, the site of violent protests last year, until Oct. 8, according to media reports.
Chinese news media have reported that the government has limited parade participants in Beijing's celebration to 187,000 — at least 300,000 fewer than in the last decennial celebration.
Performers have been carefully screened. Even the workers who are decorating the city with tens of millions of flowerpots had to undergo "political inspection," according to news reports.
Given all that, the grounding of tens of thousands of pigeons since mid-September — to avert any interference with practice for the military flyovers — may seem like a minor issue. Flying kites and model airplanes in Beijing has also been temporarily banned, to the distress of kite enthusiasts.
"Originally, they were all very excited about the holiday," said Ming Ming, manager of the Sijimantian Kites Cultural Exchange Center, which sells kites and organizes competitions. "Now, they are stuck at home. People are feeling a little annoyed."
He is not sure what they will do instead. "Most of the people who are interested in kites aren't really interested in much else," he said.
The pigeons' captivity will be temporarily broken on Thursday: 60,000 are to be released simultaneously as part of the celebration. Then it is back to their coops for another week.
Dong Jingbei, president of the Dongcheng District Carrier Pigeon Association, said he understood China's desire for flawless festivities. But he wondered what shape the pigeons would be in.
"This is totally unfair," Mr. Dong said. "This is like locking up an athlete in a tiny little room. When they finally let them out on Oct. 1 at Tiananmen, they won't even know which way is north!"
Mr. Dong is doing his best to soothe angry pigeon owners in the association. "We're a government entity," he said to a reporter. "It's not like we are going to complain to you, right? I'm trying to work on their mentalities, but they are definitely annoyed."
Still, he said, they understood that for a flawless parade day, no detail could be overlooked. Even the pigeons were undergoing security checks.
"I don't know what kind of stuff you have in New York," Mr. Dong said. "But people could strap all sorts of minibombs to pigeon legs."
