BEIJING -- After partying and shopping all night, China got off to a smooth start to the new millennium on Saturday with its telephones, airports, and power plants all free of the Y2K bug.
Fishermen's homes atop a cliff in the remote seaside town of Shitang in eastern Zhejiang province caught the first rays of the new dawn on the Chinese mainland.
The first flag-raising was on the icy Russian border in eastern Heilongjiang province. Eight People's Liberation Army soldiers at a crossing point released eight pigeons as the red five-star flag reached the top of the pole.
As dawn broke across the world's most populous nation -- a continental-sized country that stretches west from the sea all the way to Tibet in the Himalayas -- all major computer systems appeared to be working normally.
Tests showed computerised stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen had survived the roll-over.
Telephone land lines and mobile phone networks were functioning, nuclear power stations reported no glitches, and authorities said all was well with the country's weapons systems -- including its nuclear arsenal.
"This morning, we received reports from 54 departments and units under the State Council, as well as 31 provinces, autonomous regions and cities administered by central government, and the Dalian city," the Ministry of Information Industry said in a statement.
"All said their major systems made smooth transitions to the next millennium," it said.
No snags surfaced during the crossover in key departments such as power and aviation, as well as in sectors like trade, banking and securities.
The only slight glitch reported was some taxi metres freezing, and MII said it was looking into the matter.
Chinese authorities however cautioned it was too early to declare the Y2K problem as completely solved because 2000 was a leap year.
"Some specific Y2K problems might surface from February 28 to March 1 and we are closely monitoring them," it said.
President Jiang Zemin vowed a "rejuvenation" of China during official celebrations that focused on past glories of the ancient civilization, starting with the use of fire by pre-human Peking Man 500,000 years ago.
Standing with top Communist Party Politburo leaders before the China Millennium Altar, where he lit an "eternal flame," Jiang made clear that reunification with rival Taiwan was a key to restoring China's lost glory.
Ancient bronze bells sounded in temples and monasteries around the country at the stroke of midnight.
Silk-clad lion dancers ushered in the new year on the Great Wall, an engineering wonder that stretches from China's eastern seaboard to deserts in the remote west.
"Welcome to the 21st century," yelled one reveller in Beijing's Tiananmen Square as he popped a champagne cork and sent a shower of spray over the crowds.
Nearby, China's newly rich young professionals shopped for clothes and shoes along Wangfujing, now the capital's glitziest commercial thoroughfare thanks to a multi-million dollar real estate investment by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing.
Many young people camped out in the vast plaza overnight in sleeping bags so they could watch the flag-raising at dawn.
The jubilant mood was dampened when police dragged out of the square members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which has been declared an "evil cult."
To demonstrate confidence that low-tech China had beaten the Y2K bug, a China Eastern Airlines passenger jet carrying top company officials made an uneventful "trans-millennium" flight from Shanghai to Beijing.
About 38,000 people booked plane tickets to fly on Saturday, newspapers said, although insurance companies were offering to double the pay-outs to passengers.
China has 17 airlines with more than 1,000 aircraft.
Minutes before the countdown to midnight, 50 Chinese and Japanese students set a new world record when they toppled 2.5 million dominos in 32 minutes. The dominos formed elaborate pictures, including a Van Gogh self-portrait and Picasso's Weeping Woman.
The official Xinhua news agency reported that 10,000 mountaineering enthusiasts representing 56 of China's ethnic groups met early on Saturday at the snow-capped peak of Mount Taishan, the highest peak in eastern China and a symbol to many Chinese of the nation's grandeur.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.
