Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City

Today was an action-packed day of sight-seeing, which meant a lot of walking in the very hot Beijing weather. Our first stop was Tienanmen Square, the largest city square in the world. It was absolutely enormous, flagged by huge buildings, statues, and fountains. The square was first built by the Ming dynasty in 1651. As a communal area large enough for Beijing's population, the square has hosted a number of famous historical events.

It was the sight of the May 4th Movement, an anti-imperialist protest marking an upsurge of Chinese nationalism, and also where Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed China to be the "People's Republic," a communist state. We were able to walk past Mao's mausoleum, where his body is crystallized and on display. Unfortunately, we weren't able to actually go inside because of the huge line of Chinese pilgrims waiting to see his body. Tienanmen Square was also the site of the infamous Tienanmen Square Massacre, where pro-democracy supporters, mostly students and intellectuals, protested communism's social and economic controls, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people when the government tried to put down the riot.



































Tienanmen Square was also the gate-way into the Forbidden City, the private residence of the Emperor. The "Forbidden" in the name comes from the law that no commoners were allowed inside the palace; in fact, nobody was allowed inside without expressed permission from the Emperor. The other half of the name, "City," was fitting enough as well. The palace was enormous--consisting of huge pavilion after pavilion, with hundreds of buildings, a city indeed. It was hard to imagine one family living there.

The city was made up of the Outer Court, where the Emperor conducting business and day-to-day affairs, and the Inner Court, where he and his family resided. We weren't able to walk through the entire city, simply because it was so large. The whole place had an air of ancient China, reminding me irrevocably of Mulan.