Tonight my post was inspired by a Jeopardy! category. One of the categories tonight was about famous squares around the world. This of course had my mind wandering to one of the squares that was a question. What is Tiananmen Square?

I will start by saying that these pictures were taken 19 years ago by an early digital camera that stored the pictures on a floppy disk. Therefore, the resolution is not very good. It was also overcast that morning and there was rain later in the day.

Here is Zhengyangmen or Front Gate, which was at one time the southern gate of Beijing. This is the south end of the square.

On the north end of the square is Tiananmen or Gate of Heavenly Peace. Tiananmen is the entrance to the Imperial City of Beijing.

Of course, the large square between these two gates in the Tiananmen Square.

Within the square is the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong which is the final resting place of Chairman Mao.

In front of the mausoleum is the Monument to the People’s Heroes.

After walking around Tiananmen Square we went to the National Museum of China which is on the edge of the square. I really enjoyed the museum and learning more about the history and culture of China.

After a nice lunch at a nearby restaurant we then spent the afternoon visiting the Forbidden City. See: Forbidden Memories

Steven