Shi Hai： The national flagpole of founding ceremony is welded by water pipes.

　　On October 1, 1949, founding ceremony, Mao Zedong solemnly declared to the world from the Tiananmen Gate: "The Central People’s Government of People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established today." The picture shows Mao Zedong reading the announcement of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China. China News Agency issued a photo by China News Agency

　　At 3pm on October 1st, 1949, People’s Republic of China (PRC) founding ceremony was held in Tiananmen Square. Mao Zedong personally pressed the button, and in the majestic melody of March of the Volunteers, the bright five-star red flag rose in the solemn eyes that people were looking forward to. 300,000 people stood together and looked up at the first national flag of New China. People were filled with emotion and blood boiling.

　　To welcome this great historical moment, on the eve of founding ceremony, the National Day Preparatory Team stepped up the renovation of Tiananmen Square, especially the construction of the national flagpole. With a high sense of responsibility and mission, construction workers have worked hard to tackle key problems and devoted themselves to the construction of national flagpoles.

　　The autumn of 1949 was an extraordinary season in the history of China.

　　On August 9-14 that year, at the first meeting of representatives from all walks of life in Beiping, a resolution was made to celebrate the founding of the People’s Republic of China and renovate Tiananmen Square. The Municipal People’s Government instructed the Construction Bureau to come up with a plan for the renovation of Tiananmen Square, with Zhao Pengfei, director of the Construction Bureau, as the commander-in-chief. One of the specific tasks of the renovation project is to build the national flagpole on the central axis located at the northern end of Tiananmen Square and between Tiananmen Gate and Zhengyangmen Gate.

　　Because in founding ceremony, Mao Zedong will personally raise the first five-star red flag of New China. Comrade Zhao Pengfei deeply felt the great responsibility he shouldered, and dared not neglect it. After careful planning and thinking, he made a specific division of labor for the whole project. Hand over the architectural design of white marble balustrade on the flagpole base to Zhong Hanxiong, the architect of the Construction Bureau; The structural design of flagpole was completed by Lin Zhiyuan, the technical director of the Construction Bureau and the person in charge of design and construction of the renovation project of Tiananmen Square.

　　Lin Zhiyuan was extremely excited after receiving the task assigned by the organization. The trust of the party and the government made him deeply feel the great responsibility on his shoulders. In order to live up to the trust of the organization, Lin Zhiyuan immediately devoted himself to his work. According to the requirements, the height of flagpole should be the same as that of Tiananmen Gate. After field measurement, the data obtained by Lin Zhiyuan is 35 meters high. It stands to reason that 35 meters is not very high, and there is no difficulty in making it. But at that time, just liberated Beijing, when everything was in a hurry, it was not easy to find out the materials suitable for flagpoles.

　　So, Lin Zhiyuan ran around asking about it, and finally learned that the city water company had some water pipes that could be replaced. Therefore, he immediately went to the water company, chose four water pipes with different diameters, and welded them section by section. However, after welding, the length is 22.5 meters, which can not meet the requirement of 35 meters high.

　　In desperation, he had to report the measurement results after welding to the Tiananmen National Day Project Headquarters. After listening to the report, the headquarters conducted research on the spot and solicited opinions from relevant parties, and finally determined that the height of the flag pole was 22.5 meters. Finally, the flagpole installed in Tiananmen Square was welded by four seamless steel pipes in the metalworking workshop of the Vehicle Factory of the Construction Bureau.