Beijing is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of approx. 21,000,000 people.
The city's history dates back three millenia. As the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political centre of the country for much of the past seven centuries. The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, gardens, tombs, walls and gates, and its art treasures and universities have made it a centre of culture and art in China. Few cities in the world have been the political and cultural centre of an area as immense for so long.
As I mentioned at the end of my previous post, and we do sometimes hear about it on the news, Beijing struggles with its air quality. One year after the 2008 Olympics, Beijing's officials reported that the city was enjoying the best air quality this decade because of the measures taken during the Games. Nonetheless, Beijing still faces air pollution problems. The US embassy recorded levels of pollution beyond measurable levels in February 2011, and advised people to stay indoors as a thick smog was covering the city. Measurements in January 2013 showed levels of air pollution, as measured by the density of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometres in size – higher than the maximum 755mcg the US Embassy's equipment can measure. So despite Beijing spending nearly 17 billion USD in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics and to fulfill promises to clean up the city's air, and an additional $17 billion since then on a large-scale green drive... there is still a lot of work to be done. And there's no doubt you will see this grey smog in all my photos.
I was originally going to tell you about everything I did today in one post however, as I've now been working away on it for hours I realize that there's simply too much history involved with everything I saw today to put it all in one post (as you'd never read it all). So I'm going to break it up and make three separate posts --- and hopefully individually they won't be too onerous.
First on the agenda was of course Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the centre of Beijing, named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) located to its north, separating it from the Forbidden City (this gate has been destroyed and rebuilt several times). Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world (440,000 m² - 880m by 500m). It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history. Outside China, the square is best known in recent memory as the focal point of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, a pro-democracy movement which ended on 4 June 1989 with the declaration of martial law in Beijing by the government and the death of several hundred or possibly thousands of civilians. The Tiananmen Square was originally designed and built in 1651, and was enlarged four times its original size in the 1950s, following a vision of Mao Zedong to make the square the largest and most spectacular in the world, and intended to hold over 500,000 people. Used as a massive meeting place since its creation, its flatness is contrasted by the 38-metre high Monument to the People's Heroes, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The square lies between two ancient, massive gates: the Tian'anmen to the north and the Zhengyangmen, better known as Qianmen to the south. Along the west side of the Square is the Great Hall of the People, and along the east side is the National Museum of China (dedicated to Chinese history predating 1919). Trees line the east and west edges of the Square, but the square itself is open, with neither trees nor benches. The Square is lit with large lampposts which are fitted with video cameras. It is heavily monitored by uniformed and plain clothes police officers.
This is Zhengyangmen (Qianmen) Gate at the south end of Tiananmen Square. It's the first thing I saw, and the direction from which I entered the Square.
Most definitely, Tiananmen Square is HEAVILY monitored - by thousands of cctv cameras, uniformed army and police personnel, and many, many plain clothed officers. As a result, I know our guide was a little 'cautious' about he told us while we were there as 'people' would frequently sidle up beside our group and listen to what was being said.
The year after Mao's death in 1976, a Mausoleum was built in Tiananmen Square on the main north-south axis. In connection with this project, the square was further increased in size to become fully rectangular and able to accommodate 600,000 persons. The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, commonly known as the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong or the Mao Mausoleum, is the final resting place of Mao Zedong, chairman of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China from 1943 and the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from 1945 until his death in 1976. Although Mao had wished to be cremated, his body was embalmed and construction of a mausoleum began shortly after his death. This highly popular attraction is located in the middle of Tiananmen Square and thousands of people line up for hours every day to see him and pay tribute to him.
People lining up to go inside
Statues in front of the Mao Mausoleum
The Monument to the People's Heroes is a ten-story obelisk that was erected as a national monument of the PRC to the martyrs of revolutionary struggle during the 19th and 20th centuries. It was constructed from 1952-1958 and is located in the southern edge of Tiananmen Square, just north of the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The monument has also served as the centre of large-scale mourning activities that later developed into protest and unrest, such as the deaths of Premier Zhou Enlai (which developed into the Tiananmen Square protests of 1976) and Hu Yaobang (which developed into the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989). The monument is nearly 38 metres tall and covers an area of 3,000 square metres. It weighs over 10,000 metric tons and contains about 17,000 pieces of marble and granite. On the pedestal of the tablet are huge bas-relieves depicting eight major revolutionary episodes, On the front of the monument is an inscription in Mao Zedong's handwriting, which reads, "Eternal glory to the people's heroes!"
The National Museum of China flanks the eastern side of Tiananmen Square. The museum's mission is to educate about the arts and history of China. The building was completed in 1959 as one of the 'Ten Great Buildings' celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. It complements the opposing Great Hall of the People that was built at the same time. The museum was established in 2003 by the merging of the two separate museums that had occupied the same building since 1959: the Museum of the Chinese Revolution (founded to preserve the legacy of the 1949 revolution) and the National Museum of Chinese History (founded to safeguard China's larger historical legacy).
The Great Hall of the People is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the PRC and the Communist Party of China. It functions as the meeting place of the National People's Congress, which is the Chinese parliament. The Great Hall of the People was opened in 1959 and it was also one of the "Ten Great Constructions" completed for the 10th Anniversary of the PRC. It was built in 10 months by volunteers.
The Tainanmen, or Gate of Heavenly Peace, is a famous monument in Beijing and it is widely used as a national symbol. First built during the Ming Dynasty in 1420, Tiananmen is often referred to as the front entrance to the Forbidden City however, the Meridian Gate is the first entrance to the Forbidden City proper, while Tiananmen was the entrance to the Imperial City, within which the Forbidden City was located. Tiananmen is located to the north of Tainanmen Square. The original building was first constructed in 1420 and has been destroyed and rebuilt several times since then. The current one was reconstructed again between 1969-1970. The gate as it stood was by then 300 years old, and had badly deteriorated. The rebuilding aimed to leave the gate's external appearance unchanged while making it more resistant to earthquakes.
The building is 66 m long, 37 m wide and 32 m high. Like other official buildings of the empire, the gate has unique imperial roof decorations. In front of the gate are two lions standing in front of the gate and two more guarding the bridges. In Chinese culture, lions are believed to protect humans from evil spirits. Two stone columns, called huabio, each with an animal (hou) on top of it, also stand in front of the gate. Originally, these installations were designed for commoners to address their grievances by writing or sticking up petitions on the columns. However, the examples in front of the Imperial City were purely decorative and instead connoted the majesty of the imperial government.
Since 1925 portraits have been hung on Tiananmen and in 1949 the pictures of Zhu De and Mao Zedong were hung to commemorate the Second Sino-Japanese War. Since then, from the founding date of the People's Republic of China, a portrait of Mao Zedong has been hung at the square. The old portrait is replaced every October 1st, the founding day of the PRC. On certain occasions the portrait has been changed to someone else; for example, on March 9, 1953 a picture of Joseph Stalin was put up due to his death.
Here I've just gone through Tiananmen Gate and I'm looking back at Tiananmen Square, the Monument to the People's Heroes and the Mao Mausoleum (and lots of grey smog) in the background.
Because I didn't get anywhere that was up high, I don't have any pictures that would give you a good idea of Tiananmen Square looking down on it from above. But while I was walking around the Square I did take a few photos of the crowds who were, like me, just walking around.
There are garden areas in both the north-west and north-east corners of Tiananmen Square
I can't imagine sleeping on the job goes over well here!
And I couldn't resist asking if I could take this family's photo. They were in Beijing on a family holiday
As I've now moved from Tiananmen Square into the Imperial City/Forbidden City, you'll need to stay tuned for "Part 2" of my day in Beijing.
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