Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Flower and Tulips Show
. The northeast exit of the park brings you out by Meridian
Gate, from where you can enter the Forbidden City or cross the square to the northwestern
gate of the Workers Cultural Palace. The south exit brings you out near Tiān'ānmén Sq.
There is also a
west exit
)
.
MONUMENT TO THE PEOPLE'S HEROES
( Rénmín Yīngxióng Jìniànbēi; Tiān'ānmén Sq; Tian'anmen West, Tian'anmen East or Qianmen)
North of
Mao's mausoleum, and also in the centre of Tiān'ānmén Sq, the Monument to the
People's Heroes was completed in 1958. The 37.9m-high obelisk, made of Qīngdǎo gran-
ite, bears bas-relief carvings of key patriotic and revolutionary events (such as Taiping
rebels and Lin Zexu destroying opium at Hǔmén), as well as calligraphy from communist
bigwigs Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. Mao's eight-character flourish proclaims 'Eternal
Glory to the People's Heroes'. The monument is illuminated at night.
|MONUMENT
PITCHER PERFECT: RARE ATTACKS ON MAO'S PORTRAIT
The portrait of a benign Mao Zedong still hangs exaltedly from the Gate of Heavenly Peace in the same way
that public statues of the Great Helmsman still keep guard over cities across China, from Dāndōng on the North
Korean border to the far-flung Central Asian outpost of Kashgar and the ethnic Naxi town of Lìjiāng in Yúnnán.
Mao's Běijīng portrait has reportedly been vandalised just twice during its long vigil overlooking Tiān'ānmén
Sq: once in 1989 and again in 2007. During the pro-democracy protests of 1989, three men from Mao's home
province of Húnán pitched paint-filled eggs at the portrait, while in 2007 burning material was thrown at the
painting, scorching it in the process. Several copies of the portrait exist and replacement versions were speedily
requisitioned in both instances. Such dissent is severely dealt with in China: the three egg throwers paid for
their crime with spells in jail. One of them was journalist Yu Dongyue, who was jailed for over 16 years, emer-
ging mentally ill upon his release in 2006. Two of the egg throwers fled China in 2009 to seek sanctuary in the
US.
FOREIGN LEGATION QUARTER
( Chongwenmen, Qianmen or Wangfujing)
The former Foreign Legation Quarter, where the 19th-
century foreign powers flung up their embassies, schools, post offices and banks, lies east
of Tiān'ānmén Sq. Apart from the Běijīng Police Museum, the
former French Post Of-
buildings, which have been turned into high-end restaurants and members clubs, you can't
enter any of the buildings, but a stroll along the streets here (Taijichang Dajie and Zhengyi
Lu) gives you a hint of the area's former European flavour.
|HISTORIC BUILDINGS
