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Britain's Queen Elizabeth joins an armada of 1,000 boats in a gilded royal barge down London's River Thames on Sunday in a spectacular highlight of four days of nationwide celebrations to mark her 60th year on the throne.

Hundreds of thousands of people waving "Union Jack" flags and dressed in red, white and blue braved the wind and rain to line the 11 km route for one of the largest flotillas ever seen on the river.

Up and down the country, millions more were due to attend diamond jubilee street parties over the long holiday weekend in honor of the 86-year-old queen, the only British monarch after Queen Victoria to have sat on the throne for 60 years.

Leisure cruisers, rowboats, yachts and canoes made up the colorful Thames armada that also featured vessels from the 1940 evacuation of British and Allied troops from Dunkirk in northern France, a famous rescue performed by craft of all shapes and sizes and a celebrated piece of British history.

A typically inclement British summer's day failed to dampen enthusiasm, with boisterous crowds five people deep massed along the banks of the river, watching giant TV screens showing black-and-white images of the queen from her childhood.

Organizers say Sunday's river pageant is the largest of its kind in 350 years since a similar spectacle was held for King Charles II and his consort Catherine of Braganza in 1662.

A floating belfry with a set of eight church bells specially cast for the celebrations will be at the head, with bells from riverside churches pealing out as it passes by.

The queen will be on board The Spirit of Chartwell, a barge adorned with flowers, together with her 90-year-old husband Prince Philip and other members of the royal family including heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, his eldest son Prince William and new wife Kate.

Other vessels include Motor Torpedo Boat 102 on which Allied Forces commander General Dwight Eisenhower and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspected warships before the1944 D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France.

The flotilla will travel under 14 bridges and past landmarks including the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, and the Tower of London.

Although the queen is still head of state in 16 countries from Australia and Canada to tiny Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean, Britain is now a shadow of its former imperial self.

Historians and commentators say the pomp and spectacle of British royal occasions gives the country a sense of national pride at a time when the economy is in recession and people face deep austerity measures.

（中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑）

About the broadcaster:

Emily Cheng is an editor at China Daily. She was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Media, English Literature and Politics. She has worked in the media industry since starting university and this is the third time she has settled abroad - she interned with a magazine in Hong Kong 2007 and studied at the University of Leeds in 2009.