A ceremony was held Sunday to commemorate the 157th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen, a great national hero, a great patriot, and a great forerunner of China’s democratic revolution.

The ceremony was held by the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in downtown Beijing’s Zhongshan Park, which is named after Sun.

Flowers were laid in front of a statue of Sun by senior officials from the CPPCC National Committee, the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and the Beijing municipal government.

The central committees of non-Communist parties and representatives of personnel without party affiliation also paid their respects.

Born in 1866 in south China’s Guangdong Province, Sun is known for his leading role during the 1911 Revolution, which overthrew the imperial Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and ended more than 2,000 years of feudal rule in China.