President Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan receive International guests at the southern square of Duanmen, adjacent to Tian'anmen Square.

President Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan meet with Choe Ryong-hae, secretary to the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of DPRK.

The occasion saw the largest gathering of foreign guests invited to a military parade in China. Twenty-three heads of state and government leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and South Korean President Park Geun-hye, were present.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was the first guest to be greeted.

More than 100 foreign VIPs or relatives of wartime heroes attended the event, including relatives of Canadian doctor Norman Bethune, Japanese veterans who served in the Eighth Route Army and veterans of the "Flying Tigers" of the United States.

Read more about the guests and the Flying Tigers