China Guide
Beijing
Tian'anmen Square
Opening time: Tian'anmen Square: daily 24hr; Zhenyangmen gate: daily 9am–4pm
Price: Tian'anmen Square: free; Zhenyangmen gate ¥3
Address: Between Xichang'An Jie/Dongchang'An Jie and Qianmen Xi Dajie/Qianmen Dong Dajie
Covering more than forty hectares, Tian'anmen Square must rank as the greatest public square on earth. It's a modern creation, in a city that traditionally had no squares, as classical Chinese town planning did not allow for places where crowds could gather. Ten years after the Communist takeover, the Party enlarged it and built ten new Soviet-style official buildings, including the Great Hall of the People, and the museums of Chinese history and revolution. In 1976, Mao's mausoleum was added in the centre.
It may have been designed as a space for mass declarations of loyalty, but in the twentieth century Tian'anmen Square was as often a venue for expressions of popular protest. In 1989 it became the focus for a massive expression of dissent, when, from April to June, nearly a million protesters demonstrated against the slowness of reform, lack of freedom and widespread corruption. The government declared martial law on May 20, and on June 4 the military moved in. The killing was indiscriminate; tanks ran over tents and machine guns strafed the avenues. No one knows how many died in the massacre – probably thousands. Hundreds were arrested afterwards and many are still in jail.
Tian'anmen Square unquestionably makes a strong impression, but this concrete plain dotted with worthy statuary and bounded by monumental buildings can seem inhuman. Together with the bloody associations it has for many visitors, it often leaves people cold, especially Westerners unused to such magisterial representations of political power. For many Chinese tourists, though, the square is a place of pilgrimage. Crowds of peasants flock to see the corpse of Chairman Mao, others quietly bow their heads before the Monument to the Heroes, a thirty-metre-high obelisk commemorating the victims of the revolutionary struggle. At dawn, the flag at the northern end of the square is raised in a military ceremony and lowered again at dusk, which is when most people come to see it. For an impressive overview of the square, head to the 40-metre-high south gate, Zhenyangmen.