Editor's Note

The year 2008 is full of ups and downs for the Chinese people. At the end of December, China.org.cn selects some 60 photos featuring all the major events of the year. In these photos, people are shedding their tears, bursting into hearty smiles, burning with angers, or mapping out their futures. They may not look as gorgeously as movie stars, but their faces are a reminder of all the suffering and glory we had gone through together.

Joy >>

China lights the Olympic flame on August 8;  first steps in space from a Chinese hero; fly direct to Taiwan from December; relief at a single day's stock market rebound ... events that pass happiness on to 2009 just like the Olympic torch relay...

Sadness >>

Early 2008 brings devastating snowstorms to many areas in South China; the Wenchuan earthquake on May 12 leaves more than 60,000 dead; miners are trapped in flooded coal mines; babies suffer from melamine-contaminated powdered milk...

Hope >>

The Wenchuan earthquake on May 12 destroys buildings and takes many lives, but it can not bury people's hopes and their faith in reconstruction; children may have lost their parents, but they find warm hearts and even breast milk; now, a new Sichuan is being reborn even more appealing than in the past...

Pride >>

The 2008 Beijing Olympics shows the whole world that a new physical and spiritual power is on the rise; the Chinese taikonauts' spacewalk marks a giant step forward in the country's ambitious space program; attitudes progress and women play an increasingly influential role in China's political arena...

Fear >>

The Lhasa riot on March 14; frightened mothers who have fed contaminated milk powder to their babies; concern on the faces of anxious job-seekers as economic turmoil hits exports and the domestic market; victims of the earthquake and of other natural disasters and accidents...

Anger >>

Protesters condemn anti-China bias in western media reports of the Tibet Riots and the crude remarks of CNN's Jack Cafferty, and ask the West to get to know the real Tibet; public anger too for Taiwan's ousted leader Chen Shui-bian, and for shamed teacher "Fleeing Fan" who left his pupils in the earthquake...