4-14-05 - Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden Palace and Beijing M.S. #8

Tiananmen Square
by Simon Aoyoma

After an exciting day at the Great Wall of China, the next stop during our stay in Beijing was Tiananmen Square.  As we approached the massive area, we could see the large statues, Mao Zedong's tomb, and hordes of people scattered across the square.  We walked down towards the entrance of the Forbidden City, taking pictures of the beautiful statues along the way. 

After doing my presentation on Tiananmen Square, I was aware of the size and history of Tiananmen Square.  Even with that background, I was struck by not only the size of the area but the amount of people (mostly Chinese) that were there.  A line of hundreds of people was outside Mao's tomb waiting to walk past his remains, and hundreds more were scattered across the area.  Yet those numbers don't compare to the million people that were once there, protesting in 1989.  Today, it is easy to overlook the fact that tragic events took place in Tiananmen Square because it is a tourist destination for foreigners and a place of pilgrimage for the Chinese.