In January 1951, the Military College of the PLA was founded, with Liu Bocheng as President and Political Commissar. In March, the Higher Military Engineering School of the PLA was founded. After the successive founding of multiple types of military academies, a large batch of experienced veteran commanders, who had not washed away the war traces, came to these academies to learn scientific knowledge. The first divisions of troops marching in this parade were composed of the representatives of high-rank military officers with many battles experiences and numerous awards who were taking lessons in military academies. They were moving forward with vigorous strides to briskly pass Tiananmen Square. Following are the division composed of the student officers from other military academies and the representatives from all armed forces. This kind of sequence with divisions from military academies taking the lead had been carried over to the year of 1959.

To demonstrate the historical modernization of the people's army, a special arrangement was made for the artillery division. During the military parade, a number of artillery guns were towed by automobiles and others by horses. Such an arrangement was made not because of a lack of automobiles but to symbolize the PLA's development from a horse-powered army to a motorized one. During the parade, jet aircrafts were arranged for the first time for review.