BEIJING, Oct 1 (Bernama) -- More than 100,000 people from across the country gathered at Tian'anmen Square in the heart of the Chinese capital to watch the national flag raising ceremony held in drizzles at dawn of Monday, the 58th National Day of the People's Republic. (来源：老牌的英语学习网站 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

Wearing raincoats or holding up umbrellas, people -- ranging from grey hairs to toddlers-- began to flock into the square, which was ablaze with the color of 400,000 pots of flowers, at about 5:00 a.m..

"Happy birthday to you, motherland!" acclaimed 18 undergraduates from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, while seeing the five-star red flag rising at 6:10 a.m. accompanied by the national anthem, "The March of the Volunteers".

"I feel so proud to witness the country is becoming more and more prosperous after going through so many hardships," Xinhua news agency reported Monday quoting a 72-year-old Wang Nianshun, from Pingdu City of eastern Shandong Province, as saying here.

Flag raising ceremony was also held in many of other Chinese cities, such as Yinchuan, capital of northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, drawing tens of thousands of local residents.

In the central city of Changsha, Hunan Province, city administrators organized about 10,000 government employees to clean streets and railway stations to greet the National Day.

Monday also marked the beginning of the "Golden Week" of the National Day holiday, and local tourism authorities have predicted that about 1.7 million people will visit the Chinese capital during the period.

Nationwide, more than 150 million people are expected to go on tour.