October 25, 1017
First stop, Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is a city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen ("Gate of Heavenly Peace"). Among other monuments, the square contains the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong (we remember him being referred to as Chairman Mao) who is thought to be the founder of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Tiananmen Square is within the top ten largest city squares in the world. It’s significance to us is the memory of the June 4, 1989 masacre of student protestors. It’s widely associated with questioning the legitimacy of Communist Party rule, and remains one of the most sensitive and most widely censored political topics in mainland China.
The square was closed to people today but we were able to take a few pictures from acrosss the street. The flowers are still there from the October 1st holiday celebration (like our July 4th) of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
From here we head just north across a main thoroughfare to The Firbidden City...
No comments:
Post a Comment