Tiananmen Square

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This article is about Tian'anmen Square, the plaza. For the 1989 protest and massacre, see Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

Tian'anmen Square (Template:Zh-stp) is the large plaza near the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen (literally, Gate of Heavenly Peace) which sits to its north, separating it from the Forbidden City. It has great cultural significance as a symbol because it was the site of several key events in Chinese history (See below: Events). Outside of China, the square is best known for the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989.

The square is 880 metres south to north and 500 metres east to west, a total area of 440,000 square meters, which makes it the largest open-urban square in the world – considerably larger than Red Square in Moscow. Image:200401-beijing-tianan-square-overview.jpg

1 Background
2 Features
3 Events
4 Images from near and in the square
5 See also
6 External links

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Background

The Tiananmen was built in 1417. In 1699 (early Qing Dynasty), the Tiananmen was renovated and renamed to its present form. During the Ming and Qing eras, there was no public square at Tiananmen, and instead the area was filled with offices for imperial ministries. These were badly damaged during the Boxer Rebellion and the area was cleared to produce the beginning of Tiananmen Square.

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Features

Enlarged in 1949 to the current size, its flatness is broken only by the 38 metre high Monument to the People's Heroes and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The square lies between two ancient, massive gates: the Tian'anmen to the north and the Zhengyangmen, better known as Qianmen (Template:Zh-stpl) to the south. Along the west side of the Square is the Great Hall of the People. Along the east side is the National Museum of China. Chang'an Avenue, which is used for parades, lies between the Tian'anmen and the Square. Trees line the east and west edges of the Square, but the square itself is open, with neither trees nor benches.

The Square is lit with huge lamposts which also sport video cameras. It is heavily monitored by uniformed and plain clothes policemen.

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Events

Tiananmen Square has been the site of a number of political events such as the proclamation of the People's Republic of China by Mao Zedong in October 1, 1949 and for mass rallies during the Cultural Revolution. It has also been the site of a number of protest movements, most notably the May Fourth Movement of 1919 for science and democracy, protests in 1976 after the death of Zhou Enlai, and the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

The protests of 1989 resulted in the killing of Chinese protestors in the streets to the west of the square and adjacent areas. Some sources (Graham Earnshaw and Columbia Journal Review) claim that none died on the square itself. Opponents of the Chinese democracy movement object to the Western Media's labelling of the Tiananmen Massacre, the event known to the Chinese simply as the June Fourth or June Fourth movement, and June Fourth Incident. However, Chinese expatriates that escaped the tyranny after the killing said that the numbers ended up being in the thousands. This was a combination of the hundreds killed on the spot and the miniature purge that followed. These stories are confirmed by intelligence in the country as well.

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Images from near and in the square

Railway station	Zhengyangmen gate	Mausoleum of Mao Zedong	Monument in front of Mao's Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square
Monument to the People's Heroes and the Great Hall of the People	Tiananmen gate to the Forbidden City with reviewing stands in front	Iconic image of the Tiananmen Square from the May Fourth movement of 1919	Overview of the Tiananmen Square