Beijing | China

Tiananmen Square Beijing

China Discovery Tour

Beijing | China

29 Dec 2019 | Sun

Day 02 of 18

  • Tiananmen Square Beijing
  • Forbidden City
  • Beijing Olympic Park
  • Lunch at National Stone Place
  • The Great Wall at Mutianyu

Tiananmen Square Beijing

Tiananmen Square Beijing

In the heart of Beijing lies Tiananmen Square, a massive public space that has been at the center of Chinese life for centuries. Today, it is best known as the site of the 1989 pro-democracy protests that ended in tragedy, but it remains an essential part of the city and a must-see for any visitor. Tiananmen Square is a fascinating place with a long and complex history, and it provides a unique window into the soul of China.

When we visited Tiananmen Square, we couldn’t help but feel uneasy. It’s a place where so much history has happened, and it’s hard to forget what happened there in 1989. The square is massive, and the buildings are impressive, but there’s an eerie feeling about the place.

Tiananmen Square or Tian’anmen Square is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananmen (“Gate of Heavenly Peace”) located to its north, which separates it from the Forbidden City. The square contains the Monument to the People’s Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China in the square on October 1, 1949; the anniversary of this event is still observed there. The size of Tiananmen Square is 765 x 282 meters (215,730 m2 or 53.31 acres). It has great cultural significance, as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history.

– Wikipedia Tiananmen Square

Outside China, the square is best known for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, otherwise known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre and June Fourth Massacre. In June 1989, Chinese students gathered in Tiananmen Square to protest the Communist government. The protesters were met with violence from the government, and the event became known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. The square is now a symbol of the struggle for democracy in China.

The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth Clearing or June Fourth Massacre – troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military’s advance into Tiananmen Square. The protests started on 15 April and were forcibly suppressed on 4 June, when the government declared martial law and sent the People’s Liberation Army to occupy parts of central Beijing. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded. The popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests is sometimes called the ’89 Democracy Movement or the Tiananmen Square Incident.

– Wikipedia 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests and Massacre

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