Tanks A Lot

Our first stop in Beijing was Tiananmen Square, which I never heard of until the famous and failed protests of 1989.  The iconic photo of Tank Man was taken here, shortly after Chinese troops fired on civilians.  Estimates of the death toll range from several hundred to thousands.

 

The square itself is massive.  It is separated from the Forbidden City by the Tiananmen (“Gate of Heavenly Peace”).  The square contains the Monument to the People’s Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. 

The square, famous in the rest of the world for the 1989 pro-democracy movement, was also where Mao proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.  It encompasses 109 acres and is the eighth largest city square in the world, according to Wikipedia.  The largest city square in the US, Millennium Park in Chicago is less than one quarter the size.  It is very popular with millennials. 

We wandered around outside in the square, not going into any buildings, but having time to photograph them.  Honestly, I know I didn’t need to go into Mao’s Mausoleum (or should it be the Mao-soleum?  Yes, I think so.  This blog starts the process of re-branding.  I suspect Mao-soleum will be trending on Twitter any moment now!)

We walked through The Tiananmen (the aforementioned gate).  It was built in 1415 during the Ming dynasty.  The square itself was built in 1651, and was enlarged in the 1950s. 

And now our attention shifted to the Forbidden City.