China 2012: Tian'anmen
For the first day in Beijing, we didn't want to take the metro until Tian'anmen station, we preferred to walk a bit, to avoid the crowd of the morning in the metro and to have a better look of the main road of Beijing.
If I compare width of other places where I went, I am not sure I saw a so width road before. If I remember well, 7 lanes are possible for cars in each way, which is quite amazing.
The walking from Xidan department store neighborhood towards the forbidden city was weird, on Xichang'an jie, because I was not used to see so many cops or soldiers each 50 or 100 meters. Well, the whole country was preparing to celebrate the national day (October 1st), and just before to arrive at the Gate of Heavenly Peace (or Tian'anmen), there were a magnificent building guarded by several men and guards. This place is a complex of several buildings owned by the Chinese Communist party such as the Huairentang Hall (audience hall in Zhongnanhai where the Central Committee of the Communist party meets), the Fragrant Chrysanthemum Pavilion (This small Beijing house was occupied by Mao Zedong from his arrival in Beijing in 1949 to his death in 1976), etc... The guards don't allow you to stay a long time in front of the building, and pictures are not really welcomed !!
I believe this street symbolizes the power of China, in ancient times (forbidden city) and nowadays (Tian'anmen), and it's the window of the country: everything must look perfect, clean, no people harassing tourists, etc...
So, after 10 minutes walking, we arrived at the so-famous Gate of Heavenly Peace where the portrait of Mao Zedong is hung in the middle.
As parks in the city open their gates at 6am, there were already a lot of people when we arrived. Impossible to take a picture without all this crowd !
On the gate, you can see two giant placards that say:
on the left: Long Live the People's Republic of China
on the right: Long Live the Great Unity of the World's Peoples
Before Mao put its portrait to celebrate the republic of China in October 1st in 1949, it was already used for portraying the leader of the China republic (Sun Yat-sen from 1925 to its death, Chiang Kai-shek in 1945).
Excerpt from the wikipedia source says
The building is 66 m long, 37 m wide and 32 m high. Like other official buildings of the empire, the gate has unique imperial roof decorations.
In front of the gate are two lions standing in front of the gate and two more guarding the bridges. In Chinese culture, lions are believed to protect humans from evil spirits.
Two stone columns, called huabiao (华表), each with an animal (hou) on top of it, also stand in front of the gate. Originally, these installations were designed for commoners to address their grievances by writing or sticking up petitions on the columns. However, the examples in front of the Imperial City were purely decorative and instead connoted the majesty of the imperial government.
If I compare width of other places where I went, I am not sure I saw a so width road before. If I remember well, 7 lanes are possible for cars in each way, which is quite amazing.
The walking from Xidan department store neighborhood towards the forbidden city was weird, on Xichang'an jie, because I was not used to see so many cops or soldiers each 50 or 100 meters. Well, the whole country was preparing to celebrate the national day (October 1st), and just before to arrive at the Gate of Heavenly Peace (or Tian'anmen), there were a magnificent building guarded by several men and guards. This place is a complex of several buildings owned by the Chinese Communist party such as the Huairentang Hall (audience hall in Zhongnanhai where the Central Committee of the Communist party meets), the Fragrant Chrysanthemum Pavilion (This small Beijing house was occupied by Mao Zedong from his arrival in Beijing in 1949 to his death in 1976), etc... The guards don't allow you to stay a long time in front of the building, and pictures are not really welcomed !!
I believe this street symbolizes the power of China, in ancient times (forbidden city) and nowadays (Tian'anmen), and it's the window of the country: everything must look perfect, clean, no people harassing tourists, etc...
So, after 10 minutes walking, we arrived at the so-famous Gate of Heavenly Peace where the portrait of Mao Zedong is hung in the middle.
As parks in the city open their gates at 6am, there were already a lot of people when we arrived. Impossible to take a picture without all this crowd !
On the gate, you can see two giant placards that say:
on the left: Long Live the People's Republic of China
on the right: Long Live the Great Unity of the World's Peoples
Before Mao put its portrait to celebrate the republic of China in October 1st in 1949, it was already used for portraying the leader of the China republic (Sun Yat-sen from 1925 to its death, Chiang Kai-shek in 1945).
Excerpt from the wikipedia source says
The building is 66 m long, 37 m wide and 32 m high. Like other official buildings of the empire, the gate has unique imperial roof decorations.
In front of the gate are two lions standing in front of the gate and two more guarding the bridges. In Chinese culture, lions are believed to protect humans from evil spirits.
Two stone columns, called huabiao (华表), each with an animal (hou) on top of it, also stand in front of the gate. Originally, these installations were designed for commoners to address their grievances by writing or sticking up petitions on the columns. However, the examples in front of the Imperial City were purely decorative and instead connoted the majesty of the imperial government.
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