1 October 1949.
One show-off just has to have a bigger flagpole than everyone else.

Progress-hungry People's Liberation Army troops look to the future.
"In 40 years," says one, "all this will be tanks."

Aircraft soar majestically in search of a caption for this photo.

An uncomfortable pause as Mao stumbles over his speech notes.

Mao tells Liu Shaoqi that his handwriting is 'bloody illegible'.

Mao saves the day by just winging it. No one can understand his accent anyway.

Liu's stall at the Liberation Jumble Sale was poorly attended.

Tiananmen parade marching 'reached fever pitch'.

"Have I missed it? Have I missed the Founding of New China?"
Zhu De awakes in his car to find the Square deserted.

In December, Mao visited Moscow. "Chiang Kai-who?" quipped Stalin,
cementing the new friendship with a new treaty,
a large loan, and all the Faberge eggs Mao could eat.

"If you liked Japan, you'll love Communism!" PLA troops enter Shanghai.

Thousands desperately flee China to tell the world how great New China is going to be.

Tibetans greet Communist representatives.
"There's no way this can backfire," says Panchen Lama.

Pictured here at the birth of the PRC, this adorable kitten
was later eaten during the Great Leap Forward.