Students mark historic journey Share CLOSE Students from the Beijing Dance Academy rehearse for their performance at the gala show The Grand Journey, one of the major events to mark the centenary of the Communist Party of China. CHINA DAILY More than 1,000 students of the Beijing Dance Academy and the middle school attached to the university performed during the grand gala celebrating the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China held at the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, on June 28. The four-part gala, The Grand Journey, which lasted for two hours, traced the Party's century-long history from its revolutionary victories to the construction boom in the early days of the People's Republic of China and the national transformation brought about by reform and opening-up in recent decades.