Some Lights: Beijing (5) - Tiananmen Square and the Surroundings

We spent a couple of hours in the afternoon of 17/05 hanging about in the renowned Tiananmen Square (天安门广场). Tiananmen Square is presently the largest city square in the world and has been the site of many historic events. Of couse the most significant event that is still freshly in my memory is definitely the 1989 pro-democracy protest by the people mainly the students which had resulted to a couple hundred of deaths on the 4th of June 1969. This happened exactly 20 years ago and I was then still in my high school.

There were many landmark buildings in the square as well as in the surroundings, which interested me.

Tiananmen Gate stands just in front of the Tiananmen Square facing the entire square.

Tiananmen Gate

Mausoleum of Mao Zedong (毛主席纪念堂), or the Mao Mausoleum, is in the middle of the square and is the final resting place of Mao ZeDong. His remains are open for public reviewing. However the luck is not on our end as we were late already in the afternoon.

Mausoleum of Mao Zedong

The Great Hall of the People (人民大会堂) is located at the western edge of the square, and is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the China and the Communist Party of China. It functions as the People's Republic of China's parliament building.

The Great Hall of the People

The Monument to the People's Heroes (人民英雄纪念碑) is a ten-story obelisk that was erected as a national monument for China. The Monument was built in memory of the martyrs who laid down their lives for the revolutionary struggles of the Chinese people during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is located in the centre of the square and we were not allowed to go near the monument.

The Monument to the People's Heroes

The National Museum of China (中国国家博物馆) is located on eastern side of the square. The mission of the museum is to educate about the arts and history of China. The luck is again not on our end as it was closed for renovation during our visit. We were informed that it will be reopened in early 2010.

National Museum of China

We walked further down the Tiananmen Square to explore further. To our great amazement, we discoverd an egg like buiding and it was The Egg. The National Centre for the Performing Arts (国家大剧院), is an opera house in Beijing . The centre of the buiding is an ellipsoid dome of titanium and glass surrounded by an artificial lake.

The Egg

The Egg from the main entrance

Inside The Egg

There were some other interesting buidings around such as the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall,
an exhibition hall which features miniature model of the entire Beijing metropolitan area.