Tiananmen Square

The story

The Gate of Heavenly Peace was built in 1417, under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), as the front gate of the imperial city, and rebuilt in 1651 under the Qing (1644–1912), when it took its present name. In front of it lay not an open square but a narrow walled court lined with ministries, where common people could not walk. From this gate imperial edicts were let down to officials kneeling below.

After the empire fell in 1911 the walls came down and the space opened. Students gathered here on 4 May 1919, and on 1 October 1949 Mao Zedong stood on the gate and proclaimed the People's Republic of China. In 1958–59 the square was cleared and enlarged to about 44 hectares, with the Great Hall of the People on the west, the national museum on the east, and the Monument to the People's Heroes in the middle. Since then it has seen parades, mass rallies, mourning and protest, most famously in the spring of 1989.

What is here

The square is free but must be booked in advance; the gate tower and the mausoleum have their own bookings. The National Museum and Zhengyangmen have their own pages.

If you have one minute

Facing the Gate of Heavenly Peace

Look at the red gate with its yellow roof: five arched passages under a nine-bay tower. The central passage was for the emperor alone; today the portrait of Mao hangs above it. In front, the five marble Golden Water Bridges cross a moat, and two carved stone columns, the huabiao, stand guard with beasts on top.

Then turn round. The square stretches away about 880 metres to the Qianmen gate, the Monument to the People's Heroes in the middle and Mao's mausoleum behind it. You are standing on the old north–south axis of Beijing, which runs on through the gate behind you into the Forbidden City.

Things people often get wrong

"The square is as old as the gate." The gate is Ming; the open square is mostly a creation of the 1950s.

"Tiananmen is the entrance of the Forbidden City." It is the gate of the outer imperial city. The palace's own front gate, the Meridian Gate, lies about six hundred metres further north.

People who stood here

We searched Chinese sources first for this list, then English, French and Korean ones.

• Mao Zedong (founder of the People's Republic, 1893–1976)On 1 October 1949 he proclaimed the People's Republic from the gate. In 1966 he reviewed millions of Red Guards here, and his body lies in the mausoleum on the square.
• Zhou Enlai (premier, 1898–1976)He stood beside Mao in 1949. When he died, crowds filled the square at the Qingming festival of April 1976 with wreaths and poems in his memory; they were cleared by force on 5 April.
• Liang Sicheng (architect, 1901–1972) and Lin Huiyin (architect and poet, 1904–1955)Liang led the design of the Monument to the People's Heroes; Lin Huiyin designed the garlands of flowers carved round its base, one of her last works before her death.
• Jean-Paul Sartre (philosopher, 1905–1980) and Simone de Beauvoir (writer, 1908–1986)On 1 October 1955 they watched the National Day celebrations at Tiananmen as guests of the government.
• Kim Il Sung (North Korean leader, 1912–1994)He watched China's National Day parades from the gate in 1954 and 1959.

Go deeper: six stops from the gate to Qianmen8 stops · about 2 min to read

The square itself takes an hour; add the gate tower, the mausoleum or the museum and it becomes a morning. The stops go from north to south.

1. The Gate of Heavenly Peace

You can climb the gate tower and stand where Mao stood in 1949, looking down the square. Inside the hall are exhibits on its history. The slogans on either side of the portrait read "Long live the People's Republic of China" and "Long live the great unity of the peoples of the world".

2. The flag

The national flag at the north end of the square is raised by a guard of honour at sunrise and lowered at sunset every day, the time changing with the sun, from before 5 in June to after 7 in winter. Thousands come to watch, many having queued since the small hours.

3. The Monument to the People's Heroes

The granite obelisk, finished in 1958 and about 38 metres high, carries Mao's inscription on its north face. Round its base, eight large marble reliefs tell the story of China's revolutions from the burning of opium in 1839 to the crossing of the Yangtze in 1949. Look for the garlands of peonies, lotuses and chrysanthemums designed by Lin Huiyin.

4. The Great Hall and the museum

Both were built in ten months for the tenth anniversary in 1959. The Great Hall on the west is where the National People's Congress meets; the National Museum of China on the east is one of the largest museums in the world and has its own page.

5. The Mausoleum of Mao Zedong

Completed in 1977, a year after Mao's death, the hall holds his embalmed body in a crystal coffin. Visitors file past in silence; many leave flowers at the statue in the north hall.

6. Zhengyangmen (Qianmen)

The south end of the square is closed by the great gate of the Ming inner city, Zhengyangmen, with its archery tower beyond. It has its own page.

The square in 1989

In April 1989 students began to gather in the square to mourn the reformist leader Hu Yaobang, and the gathering grew into weeks of protest for political reform and against corruption, joined by workers and residents and occupying the square. Martial law was declared on 20 May. On the night of 3 to 4 June the army moved into central Beijing and cleared the square. Many people were killed, mostly in the streets around it. The number of dead has never been established: the government gave a figure of about two hundred civilians and several dozen soldiers, while other estimates run from several hundred to several thousand. A photograph taken on 5 June of a man standing in front of a column of tanks on Chang'an Avenue, his identity still unknown, became one of the best-known images of the century. The events are not discussed in public in mainland China, and the square is closely guarded each year around 4 June.

The square and the same years elsewhere

The Ming court moved to Beijing in 1421, while the gate was new. The year before, the Treaty of Troyes made Henry V of England heir to the French throne.