September 9,2006 is the 30th anniversary of the death of Mao Zedong and December 26,2006 is the 103th anniversary of the birth of Mao, who founded the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949 and led the nation for 27 years after that.

Thousands of visitors queue to view the embalmed body of the late Chairman Mao Zedong at his mausoleum in Beijing September 9, 2006. Thousands queued at Beijing's Mao Zedong Mausoleum on the 30th anniversary of his death.

Books on the life of Mao Zedong line the shelves of a Xinhua Bookstore in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Chairman's death.