Beijing Attractions

Venue: Tiananmen Square    When: Daily

Set at the very heart of Beijing, in front of the Forbidden City, surrounded by important buildings of the Communist Party and with Chairman Mao's mausoleum standing at its centre, Tiananmen Square - Gate of Heavenly Peace - represents the core of both modern and ancient China.

The square is often referred to as the biggest square in the world. Lying at the centre of a nation of 1300 million people it is, however, slightly less spectacular than might be expected, as it was cleared and remodelled in the 1950s to mark the ascendancy of the Chinese Communist Party and the break with the past.

Nonetheless, the square definitely ought to remain a top attraction on anyone's Chinese itinerary, as it is heavily imbued with symbols of power from both the past and the present.

To many Chinese, Chairman Mao was more than a mere human and the pilgrimage to his embalmed corpse has almost religious proportions. The reluctance to let go of the icon of Mao despite the recent drive towards capitalism also marks the dualism and contradiction of today's China -- a nation projecting an image of openness and progress but retaining many of the entrapments of the past.

The northern side of the square is marked by the Tiananmen Gate Tower, with its Five-Star Red Flag flying high and a monumental painting of Chairman Mao. In the centre stands the Monument to the People's Heroes as well as the Chairman Mao mausoleum, while the eastern and western sides are flanked by the Great Hall of the People and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution.

Tiananmen Square was also the site of the violently-crushed 1989 pro-democracy rallies that saw thousands of casualties among the demonstrators and many more people imprisoned, an event that still scars the modern history of China. Moreover, it was here that alleged Falun Gong members immolated themselves, thereby provoking a major crackdown on the sect by the government.