Mao fans bow before gold image of Communist China's founder Wednesday Dec 25,2013

Thousands of admirers of Communist China's founder Mao Zedong flocked to his home town Shaoshan, in China's central province of Hunan on Wednesday Dec 25,2013 to bow before his graven image - including one statue of solid gold - before his 120th birth anniversary.

Pilgrims from across the country lit firecrackers and offered flowers in Shaoshan, where Mao was born 120 years ago on Thursday, to celebrate a man blamed for tens of millions of deaths but widely viewed as the father of modern China

Mao's legacy remains a divisive topic in China, where the ruling Communist Party's official stance is that he was "70 % right and 30% wrong" - and it has never allowed an open historical reckoning of his actions.

The 12-decade anniversary has a special resonance in China, which traditionally measured time in 60-year cycles