HO CHI MINH CITY (AFP) — Vietnam mounted its biggest-ever celebration of the fall of Saigon on its 50th anniversary Wednesday, including Chinese troops for the first time after Xi Jinping visited to portray Beijing as a more reliable partner than Washington.

A lotus-shaped float carrying a portrait of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh was near the front of the parade in the city renamed after him, Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists saw, and fighter jets and helicopters carry flags flew overhead.

Thousands of people — many wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the Vietnamese flag — including families with young children and the elderly stayed out overnight in the streets, sharing food and waiting for the display.

The celebrations come half a century after tanks of communist North Vietnam crashed through the gates of the city’s presidential palace, defeating the United States-backed South and delivering a painful blow to American moral and military prestige.

“I am proud of having contributed to liberating the south,” said 75-year-old veteran Tran Van Truong who had traveled — dressed in full military uniform — from the capital Hanoi to see the parade.

“But what’s gone is gone, I have no hatred for those from the other side of the battle,” Truong told AFP. “We should join hands to celebrate the end of the war.”

Around 13,000 people, including veterans, soldiers and members of the public, were to march down Ho Chi Minh City’s Le Duan Street, a major thoroughfare which leads to the Independence Palace.

For the first time, more than 300 soldiers from China, Laos and Cambodia took part in the spectacle.

More than 300,000 Chinese troops were involved in the bloody conflict, according to state media, providing crucial anti-aircraft defense support and helping with logistics and supplies.

But this year is the first time Chinese soldiers have ever been part of large-scale commemorations.

Only four years after the end of the Vietnam War, China itself invaded the country, only to be pushed back by Hanoi’s troops.