Beijing - Tian'anmen Square

Tian'anmen Square (The Square of Heavenly Peace), situated in the city center, is considered to be the largest inner-city square in the World. It was built to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the state in 1958 in the place of an older unnamed open space in front of the Gate of Heavenly Peace and can hold up to a million people. It is the center of Socialist China.

The symbolic importance of the square goes back to May 4th 1919 when students demonstrated here against the Chinese provisions of the Versaille treaty. Following the memorial day of April 4th 1976 countless Beijing residents mourned their popular prime minister Zhou Enlai, and a demonstration against the Jiang Qing group ensued, which was forcefully suppressed. In the early summer of 1989 demonstrations for democracy and against press censorship took place here and these were also brutally suppressed.

In the middle of the Tian'anmen Square is the Monument to the People's Heroes (Renmin Yingxiong Jinianbei), a 38m (125ft) obelisk. Completed in 1958, it stands on a two-tier pedestal and consists of 17,000 pieces of granite and marble.

The northern side has an inscription by Mao, "Eternal Glory to the Heroes of the People", and the southern side carries a dedication by Zhou Enlai to the martyrs of the revolution who gave their lives in the wars after 1840. The ten bas-reliefs on the pedestal, with a total of 170 figures, represent, running from east to north, the most important events of the Chinese revolution: the opium burning in Humen, the uprising in Jintian, the rebellion in Wuchan, the movements of May 4th 1919 and of May 30th 1925, the uprising in Nanchang, the guerilla war against Japan and the crossing of the Changjiang.