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Tiananmen Square is the large plaza near the center of Beijing,
China, named after the Tiananmen Gate of Heavenly Peace which sits to
its north, separating it from the Forbidden City.
It has great cultural significance as a symbol because it was the
site of several key events in Chinese history. Outside of China, the
square is best known for the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
The square is 880 meters south to north and 500 meters east to west, a
total area of 440,000 square meters, which makes it the largest
open-urban square in the world.
The Tiananmen was built in 1417 in the Ming Dynasty. In 1699, the
Tiananmen was renovated and renamed to its present form. During the Ming
and Qing eras, there was no public square at Tiananmen, and instead the
area was filled with offices for imperial ministries. These were badly
damaged during the Boxer Rebellion and the area was cleared to produce
the beginning of Tiananmen Square.
Near the centre of today's square, close to the site of the Mao Zedong
Mausoleum, once stood one of the most important gates of Beijing. This
gate was known as the "Great Ming Gate" during the Ming Dynasty, "Great
Qing Gate" during the Qing Dynasty, and "Gate of China" during the
Republic of China era.
Unlike the other gates in Beijing, such as the Tiananmen and the
Qianmen, this was a purely ceremonial gateway, with three arches but no
ramparts, similar in style to the ceremonial gateways found in the Ming
Dynasty Tombs. This gate had a special status as the "Gate of the
Nation", as can be seen from its successive names. It normally remained
closed, except when the Emperor passed through.
In the early 1950s, China Gate was demolished along with the Chessgrid
Streets to the south, completing the expansion of Tiananmen Square to
its current size.
We also visited a Chinese pharmacy and a silk market of which there
are some pictures below.
Click on the image to enlarge, use your browsers back button to
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