President Hu Jintao (L) and former President Jiang Zemin attend the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing October 9, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

The conference to commemorate the centennial of the 1911 (Xinhai) Revolution is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Oct 9, 2011. [Photo/Xinhua]

The conference to commemorate the centennial of the 1911 (Xinhai) Revolution is held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Oct 9, 2011. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - China held a grand ceremony to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the 1911 Revolution, which terminated 2,000 years of imperial rule, on Sunday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The 1911 Revolution, or Xinhai Revolution, which began on October 10, 1911 with an armed uprising, ended one of the longest autocratic rule in the world established by Emperor Qinshihuang in 221 BC by toppling the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and resulting in a republican government, the first in Asia.

President Hu Jintao and other leaders attended the ceremony. Hu gave a keynote speech.

The 1911 Revolution was "a thoroughly modern, national and democratic revolution" which had shook the world and ushered in unprecedented social changes in China, according to President Hu Jintao.

The revolution not only rid Chinese men of humiliating ponytails and women of the excruciatingly painful foot-binding, but also removed the people's blind faith in the emperor, as well as the fear of foreign powers. The event has since been emancipating people's minds from thousands of years of oppression and self-enclosure.

Since then, the country began to march on the road to become an empowered modern nation.