With China's National Day just around the corner, several former ambassadors share their experiences of holding parties to celebrate the national day in foreign countries. Their stories of growing from inexperienced young diplomatic officials to senior ambassadors coincide with China's development from poverty to prosperity.

China's diplomacy has developed considerably in the 61 years since the People's Republic of China was founded. Many former ambassadors are in their 70s now. But it seems their decades of work in diplomatic affairs has injected them with some kind of energy, which has kept them seeming younger that their years. As for the current diplomatic work, they think it is totally different from that of the past. Although nowadays the material conditions are not tough any more, the responsibilities they shoulder are not easy at all.

Yang Fuchang Wang Zhen Hua Liming

Yang Chengxu Liu Xinsheng

Video: Xu Yang

Journalist: Chen Lu

Translation: Zheng Jinran & Hou Lei

Voiceover: Christ Clark