When most people think of ancient history they think in terms of thousands of years ago. Not so in China where the National Museum of China has decreed that Ancient China ended in 1840 with the onset of the First Opium War. Thankfully, otherwise I and, I suspect, many of my readers would be deemed products of the dark ages or, at best, the middle ages, China moves directly from Ancient China to the Modern Age. Continue reading “A New Dawn – China sees Red”
The Soviet style (and designed) Great Hall of the People lies to the west of Tiananmen Square. Given the sheer size the square the buildings in and around it look much smaller than they actually are. Make no mistake, this building is huge, covering an area of 150,000sqm. Believe it or not, the twelve light-gray marble colonnades on the front of the building are each two metres in diameter and twenty-five metres high. Continue reading “The Great Hall of the People”
The massive building flanking a major part of the eastern side of Tiananmen Square is the National Museum of China – the largest museum in the world, based on an area of around 200,000 square metres. Continue reading “National Museum of China”
This rather ornate brass marker – China’s Ground Zero – marks the beginning of China’s highways or the point in Beijing from which all distances by road in China are measured. One might imagine that such a marker might in itself have some age – no, not at all, it was set into the ground in 2006. Continue reading “China’s Zero Point”
The watchtower was an integral part of Zhengyangmen and only it and the gatehouse remain of this, the largest and one of the most important gates on Beijing’s 1400s Inner City wall. I suggest you read my review on the Zhengyangmen Gatehouse prior to this one as I have not repeated relevant background information in that review here. Continue reading “Zhengyangmen (Zhengyang Gate) – Watchtower”
At the southern end of Tiananmen Square, away from the Forbidden City, is a seemingly very out of place gate with another one, equally out of place looking, less than hundred metres behind it. Continue reading “Zhengyangmen (Zhengyang Gate) – Gatehouse”
Mao Zedong (1893-1976) was Chairman of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China from 1943 and the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from 1945 until his death on 9 September, 1976. Continue reading “Visit Chairman Mao Zedong”
This review is on the building and sculptures around it. For details of my internal visit see my separate review – Visit Chairman Mao Zedong.
The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall or Mao’s Mausoleum is located at the southern end of Tiananmen Square between the Monument to the People’ s Heroes and Zhengyangmen Gate. Continue reading “Chairman Mao Memorial Hall”
On the 30 September 1949, the day before Mao Zedong’s official proclamation of the People’s Republic of China, the first plenary session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference decreed that a monument be constructed in Beijing to commemorate the people’s heroes of modern Chinese history. Continue reading “Monument to the People’s Heroes”
In 2009, to display a parade marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October 1949, authorities erected two 40 metres long by 5 metres high, extremely high resolution LED display screens smack bang in the centre of Tiananmen Square – one some metres on either side of the north south axis – an historically important and symbolic line running down the centre of the square and beyond, through the Forbidden City to the North and the Temple of Heaven Complex to the south. Continue reading “Tiananmen Square LED Screens”
The Rambling Wombat 