Bastille Day remembrance marks 100 years since WWI

World Today

France marks its national holiday with a parade to commemorate 100 years since World War One. Each of the 80 countries involved, including China, have been participating in the week’s events in Paris. CCTV’s Kate Rousseau reports.

The military parade down Paris’s famous Champs Elysees is held annually on July 14, also known as Bastille Day. The holiday — which commemorates the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 and would lead to the overthrow of the monarchy — is already the biggest annual event in France. But this year, it’s being celebrated in the name of peace — a century after the war that killed nearly 9.7 million people.

Among those in the parade from the 80 countries involved in World War One, four of them were students from China. They participated in remembrance of the 96,000 Chinese workers sent to France to replace the men who had gone to fight in the war.

Bastille Day, 100 years since WWI

France marks its national holiday with a parade to commemorate 100 years since World War One. Each of the 80 countries involved, including China, have been participating in the week's events in Paris. CCTV's Kate Rousseau reports.