Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 14 - Beijing Tian'an Men Square

Opposite of the southern entrance to the Imperial City and Forbidden Palace is Tiananmen Square, which is named after the Tian'an Gate or Gate of Heavenly Peace. It is listed (in Wikipedia) as the largest city square in the world, and I must tell you, it is pretty big! It was designed and built in 1651.

The view from the North end, with our backs to the Forbidden City, you can see the Chinese flag flying in the middle and behind it a monument and then the building is Mao's Mausoleum, which was built in 1976 (a year after Mao's death). The 2nd and 3rd pictures are views on the right-hand side, which is the Great Hall of the People and on the left-hand side (4th, 5th, and 6th pictures) is the National Museum of China (dedicated to Chinese history predating 1919).

This is a closer view of Mao's Mausoleum and the carved walls nearby. You can go in and view him embalmed body in the mornings but not on Mondays, and due to a few scheduling issues, we ended up only being able to try to go through on Sunday morning. We got over there about the time it opened but the line seemed very long, so unfortunately, Tom had to skip it.

The Monument to the People's Heros stands in front of the Mausoleum and is a 10-story obelisk. On the pedestal are 8 large bas-reliefs carved out of white marble which depict some of the struggles of the Chinese people starting with the 1st Opium war in 1840 through the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. The inscription on the front of the monument supposedly reads "Eternal glory to the people's heros!" and is in Mao's handwriting.

The Great Hall of the People is a large Soviet-era looking building which is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China. It functions as the People's Republic of China's parliament building and was opened in 1959. You can take a tour of it, which we did.

What big DOORS you have :-) All the better to make a grand entrance into this REALLY lovely room!

The main auditorium

There are 2 gates further south, the Zhengyang Gate and the Zengyangmen Tower, which were quite nice. There seemed to be an exhibit in them but we didn't have time to stop.

And yet another lion!

We were walking through this one section and caught this sign ... and you wonder why I'm turning into a vegetarian!




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