Commemorative activities were held in Chinese cities on Tuesday to mark the country's first Martyrs' Day.

About 5,000 people visited the Northeast Martyrs' Museum in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang. Soldiers, pupils and university students gathered to honor and remember deceased national heroes.

Some 1,300 people paid tribute during a ceremony on Tuesday morning at the Tower for Revolutionary Heroes at Yingxiong Mountain in Jinan City, capital of the eastern Shandong Province. Shandong boasts more martyrs than any other Chinese province, with the number standing at around 300,000.

Similar activities were held in Hubei, Fujian and Hainan.

Martyrs, as defined by the government, are "people who sacrificed their lives for national independence and prosperity, as well as the welfare of the people in modern times, or after the First Opium War (1840-1842)."

It is estimated that China has about 20 million martyrs. However, only 1.93 million of them have been named in the government's directory, while the rest could not be identified. The number has been increasing by about 300 annually in recent years.

Many of them were soldiers, revolutionaries and early communist leaders, but their numbers also include many ordinary Chinese.

China's top legislature set Sept. 30 as Martyrs' Day last month.