Login

Tiananmen Square

The Heart of China

Located in the heart of Beijing, Tiananmen Square is the largest city square in the world. Within the square are landmarks such as Tiananmen Gate, the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao. In Every morning and evening, solemn ceremonies of raising and lowering the national flag is held in the square.

Tiananmen Square, which is located in the heart of the capital Beijing, is a symbol of China in the eyes of foreigners. With a length of 880 meters from north to south and a width of 500 meters from east to west, Tiananmen Square is the largest city square in the world, capable of accommodating one million people at the same time. The square is adjacent to Tiananmen Gate in the north and Qianmen 前门 in the south, with the Great Hall of the People and the National Museum on the east and west sides.

Tiananmen Square

At fifteen o’clock on October 1, 1949, the grand founding ceremony officially began, 300,000 Chinese citizens gathered in Tiananmen Square, Mao Zedong stood on Tiananmen Gate to announce the founding of the new China to the world, this ancient Eastern country with 5,000 years of history opened a new era.

Basket of flowers on Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Gate is located in the heart of Beijing and is the boundary point between the Dongcheng Dist. and Xicheng Dist., and is also the best place to see Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Gate Tower built in the fifteenth year of Yongle, Ming Dynasty (1417), it has a history of six hundred years and was originally called The “Gate of Accepting Heavenly Mandate”, which is derived from the meaning of “receiving the mandate from heaven, and pacifying the dynasty” 受命于天, 安邦治国, is the main gate of the Imperial City around Forbidden City. The building is 34 meters high, 63 meters wide from east to west, divided into upper and lower two floors, you can see it from its yellow Double-eaved hip-and-gable roof, Tiananmen Gate was a very high ranked city gate.

Since 1966, a huge portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong has been hung in the middle of Tiananmen Gate, which is 6 meters long, 4.6 meters wide and weighs 1.5 tons. The portrait is replaced at least once a year to ensure its clarity and color vibrancy.

The Outer Jinshui Bridge and Huabiao Pillars

Across the Jinshui River in front of Tiananmen Square, there are five beautifully carved Chinese white marble arch bridges, corresponding to the five arch doorways of Tiananmen Gate, named the Outer Jinshui Bridge 外金水桥, which echoes the Inner Jinshui Bridge 内金水桥 in front of the Imperial Palace’s Taihe Gate 太和门.

The width and length of the outer Jinshui Bridge vary, and the carvings on the body of the bridge also differ, which has a lot to do with the strict social status policy of the feudal hierarchy. The middle one is called Imperial Road Bridge 御路桥, and its deck is 42 meters long. It is the widest and longest of the five bridges, with a width of 8.55 meters. On both sides of the bridge body, the railings and columns are decorated with coiled dragons and clouds. This bridge for the emperor only. On both sides of the two slightly narrower bridges, called the “Prince Bridge”, for members of the royal family, such as princes to pass. The two outermost bridges are called “Courtier Bridges” and are decorated with peach-shaped patterns for the passage of civil and military officials of the third grade and above.

Next to the Jinshui Bridge are two stone lions and a pair of Huabiao Ornamental Pillars 华表, which are also relics from the Ming Yongle reign and are similar in age to Tiananmen Gate. They are made of white marble and carved with Dragon and Cloud Patterns, and on top of them is a crouching beast facing south. It is said that they are standing on top of the watch, hoping that the emperor will return to the palace soon to discuss politics, while the other pair of beasts on the Huabiaos behind Tiananmen Gate face north, hoping that the emperor will not be addicted to comfort life inside the palace, and leave the palace in time to inspect the people’s situation.

Manywhere Trivia:
Note that the railings on the west Huabiao Pillar are held up with iron bars and deliberately not repaired because this is evidence of Eight-Power Allied Coalition invasion of China.

The World’s Largest City Square

Tiananmen Square is located on the south side of Chang'an Street 长安街, 880 meters long from north to south and 500 meters wide from east to west, with a total area of 44 hectares, which can accommodate one million people to gather in the square, and is The World's Largest City Square.

The square is lined from north to south with national flag pole, the Monument to the People’s Heroes and the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao, and the flag-raising and flag-lowering ceremonies held in Tiananmen Square every morning and evening attract tourists from all over the country. Now every National Day and other important anniversary, Tiananmen Square will be decorated with Colorful Flowers.

The East and West Sides of Tiananmen Square are two distinctive buildings: the Great Hall of the People and the National Museum of China, they also all occupy an important historical place in modern Chinese history.

National Museum Of China

World's Largest Museum

The National Museum of China is located on the east side of Tiananmen Square, opposite to the Great Hall of the People. The museum has national treasures such as the Houmuwu Square Cauldron, Basin with a Fish Pattern with a Human Face, Song Dynasty Painted Wooden Guanyin, etc.

Monument to the People’s Heroes

Since 1840, countless martyrs have sacrificed their precious lives for the cause of the revolution, spilling their blood to forge an era of peace that we will never forget. In the middle of Tiananmen Square, erected this monument to the people’s heroes, to express respect to the martyrs by the later generations.

Monument to the People's Heroes

The Monument to the People’s Heroes was built in 1958, with a height of 37.94 meters, 4 meters higher than Tiananmen Square. The body of the monument stone weighs 100 tons, of which the original stone weighs 320 tons, selected from the granite of Qingdao Fushan. From quarrying to transportation, it took just over 7 months, with a total of 7116 workers involved.

The monument has inscriptions on both the front and north sides, with eight gilt characters on the north side 人民英雄永垂不朽 People's Heroes Forever inscribed in Chairman Mao’s own handwriting, and the 120-character Inscription was drafted by Chairman Mao and inscribed by Zhou Enlai, with the following inscription: “For three years, the people’s heroes who died in the War of People’s Liberation and the People’s Revolution will be honored forever. For the past three decades, the heroes of the people who died in the War of Liberation and the People’s Revolution will be honored forever. From this day back to the year 1840, the people’s heroes who have died in all the struggles since then to fight against internal and external enemies and for national independence and the freedom and happiness of the people will be honored forever”.

The “three years” refers to the War of Liberation, the “three decades” refers to the period from the New Democratic Revolution in 1919 to the founding of New China in 1949. The Opium War, in “the year 1840”, led to the transformation of China into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. To commemorate the important historical events that took place during this period, around the base of the People’s Heroes Monument, Eight Pieces of Relief represent eight classic historical moments were carved: the Hu Men, the Jintian Uprising, the Wuchang Uprising, the May Fourth Movement, The May 30th Movement, the Nanchang Uprising, the anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare and the victorious crossing of the Yangtze River.

The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall

The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall located at the southernmost tip of Tiananmen Square, the double-story square building has a traditional Chinese architectural style with 44 granite columns from Fujian Province around the building to support the roof, and Qingdao granite tiles around the perimeter of the memorial hall. It maintains a unified tone with the Monument to the People’s Heroes nearby.

The crystal coffin housing Chairman Mao’s body is on display in the Hall of Remembrance, and every day tens of thousands of people line up outside the Hall of Remembrance just to be able to see his face.

The memorial hall is surrounded by trees, in the north and south sides there are Four Groups of Sculptures.