Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场;

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng'';

Wade–Giles Wade–Giles () is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Francis Wade, during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert A. Giles's '' Chinese–English Dictionary'' o ...

: ''Tʻien¹-an¹-mên² Kuang³-chʻang³'') is a

city square A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

in the

city center A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, named after the eponymous

Tiananmen The Tiananmen (also Tian'anmen (天安门), Tienanmen, T’ien-an Men; ), or the Gate of Heaven-Sent Pacification, is a monumental gate in the city center of Beijing, China, the front gate of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beij ...

("Gate of Heavenly Peace") located to its north, which separates it from the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a Chinese palace, palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples includ ...

. The square contains the

Monument to the People's Heroes The Monument to the People's Heroes () is a ten-story obelisk that was erected as a national monument of China to the martyrs of revolutionary struggle during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is located in the southern part of Tiananmen Square in ...

, the Great Hall of the People, the

National Museum of China The National Museum of China () flanks the eastern side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The museum's mission is to educate about the arts and history of China. It is directed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic ...

, and the

Mausoleum of Mao Zedong The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall (), also known as the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, is the final resting place of Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party from 1943 and the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 194 ...

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

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. Outside China, the square is best known for the 1989 protests and massacre that ended with a military crackdown, which is also known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre or the June Fourth Massacre.Wong, Jan (1997) ''Red China Blues'', Random House, p. 278, .

History

The

("Gate of Heavenly Peace"), a gate in the wall of the

Imperial City In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

, was built in 1415 during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

. In the 17th century, fighting between

Li Zicheng Li Zicheng (22 September 1606 – 1645), born Li Hongji, also known by the nickname, Dashing King, was a Chinese peasant rebel leader who overthrew the Ming dynasty in 1644 and ruled over northern China briefly as the emperor of the short-li ...

's rebel forces and the forces of the

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

-led

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

caused heavy damage to, or even destroyed, the gate. Tiananmen Square was designed and built in 1651, and was enlarged fourfold in the 1950s.Safra, J. (Ed.). (2003). Tiananmen Square. In New

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...

, The (15th ed., Chicago: Vol. 11). Encyclopædia Britannica INC. p. 752
Britannica Online version
/ref> The gate historically known as the "Great Ming Gate", the southern gate to the Imperial City stands near the center of the square. It was renamed the "Great Qing Gate" during the Qing dynasty, and the " Gate of China" during the

Republican era Republican Era can refer to: * Minguo calendar, the official era of the Republic of China It may also refer to any era in a country's history when it was governed as a republic or by a Republican Party. In particular, it may refer to: * Roman Rep ...

. Unlike the other gates in Beijing, such as the Tiananmen and the Zhengyang Gate, this was a purely ceremonial gateway, with three arches but no ramparts, similar in style to the ceremonial gateways found in the

Ming tombs The Ming tombs are a collection of mausoleums built by the emperors of the Ming dynasty of China. The first Ming emperor's tomb is located near his capital Nanjing. However, the majority of the Ming tombs are located in a cluster near Beijing an ...

. This gate had a special status as the "Gate of the Nation", as can be seen from its successive names. It normally remained closed, except when the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

passed through. Commoner traffic was diverted to side gates at the western and eastern ends of the square, respectively. Because of this diversion in traffic, a busy marketplace, called "Chess Grid Streets", was developed in the large fenced square to the south of this gate. In 1860, during the

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

, when British and French troops occupied Beijing, they pitched camp near the gate and briefly considered burning down the gate and the Forbidden City. Ultimately, they decided to spare the Forbidden City and instead burn down the

Old Summer Palace The Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan () or Yuanmingyuan Park, originally called the Imperial Gardens (), and sometimes called the Winter Palace, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. I ...

. The

Xianfeng Emperor The Xianfeng Emperor (17 July 1831 – 22 August 1861), or by temple name Emperor Wenzong of Qing (), given name Yizhu (), was the eighth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the seventh Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigned from 1850 t ...

eventually agreed to let

Western powers The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

barrack troops – and later establish diplomatic missions – in the area, hence there was the

Legation Quarter The Peking Legation Quarter was the area in Peking (Beijing), China where a number of foreign legations were located between 1861 and 1959. In the Chinese language, the area is known as ''Dong Jiaomin Xiang'' (), which is the name of the ''hutong ...

immediately to the east of the square. When the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance besieged Beijing during the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

in 1900, they badly damaged the office complexes and burnt down several ministries. After the Boxer Rebellion ended, the area became a space for the Eight-Nation Alliance to assemble their military forces. In 1954, the Gate of China was demolished, allowing for the enlargement of the square. In November 1958, a major expansion of Tiananmen Square started, which was completed after only 11 months, in August 1959. This followed the vision of

to make the square the largest and most spectacular in the world, and intended to hold over 500,000 people. In that process, a large number of residential buildings and other structures have been demolished.Li, M. Lilliam; Dray-Novey, Alison J.; Kong, Haili (2007) ''Beijing: From Imperial Capital to Olympic City'', Palgrave, On its southern edge, the

has been erected. Concomitantly, as part of the

Ten Great Buildings The Ten Great Buildings () are ten public buildings that were built in Beijing in 1959, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. They were part of an architecture and urbanism initiative of Chairman Ma ...

constructed between 1958 and 1959 to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Great Hall of the People and the Revolutionary History Museum (now the

) were erected on the western and eastern sides of the square. For the first decade of the PRC, each National Day (October 1) was marked by a large military parade in Tiananmen Square, in conscious emulation of the annual Soviet celebrations of the Bolshevik Revolution. After the disaster of the Great Leap Forward, the CCP decided to cut costs and have only smaller annual National Day celebrations in addition to a large celebration with a military parade every 10 years. However, the chaos of the Cultural Revolution almost prevented such an event from taking place on National Day, 1969, which did take place (parades were also held there in 1966 and 1970). Ten years later, in 1979, the CCP again decided against a large scale celebration, coming at a time when Deng Xiaoping was still consolidating power and China had suffered a rebuff in a border war with Vietnam early in the year. By 1984, with the situation much improved and stabilized, the PRC held a military parade for the first time since 1959. The aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre prevented any such activities in October 1989, but military parades have been held in 1999 and 2009, on the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the PRC's founding. On May 8, 2015, a military parade was also held to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. In 1971, large portraits of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

Sun Yat-sen Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...

, and Mao Zedong were erected in the square, painted by artist

Ge Xiaoguang Ge Xiaoguang (; born 1953 in Beijing), is a Chinese artist best known for painting the massive 6 x 4.6-meter portrait of Mao Zedong that hangs at Tiananmen Gate in Tiananmen Square. Education and training Ge Xiaoguang graduated from the Fine Ar ...

, who is also responsible for producing the famous portrait of Mao that hangs over the Gate of Heavenly Peace. In 1980, with the downgrading of political ideology following Mao's death, the portraits were taken down and thenceforth only brought out on Labor Day (May 1) and National Day. In 1988, the CCP leadership decided to display only the portraits of Sun and Mao on national holidays. One year after Mao's death, a

mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be consid ...

was built near the site of the former Gate of China along the main north–south axis of the square. In connection with this project, the square was further increased in size to become fully rectangular and being able to accommodate 600,000 people. The urban context of the square was altered in the 1990s with both the construction of National Grand Theater in its vicinity and the expansion of the National Museum.

Panorama

Image:200401-beijing-tianan-square-overview.jpg, 800px, center, Panorama

image map In HTML and XHTML, an image map is a list of coordinates relating to a specific image, created in order to hyperlink areas of the image to different destinations (as opposed to a normal image link, in which the entire area of the image links to a ...

of Tiananmen Square from the north atop

's gate tower, showing the Square beyond

Chang'an Avenue 250px, Chang'an Avenue hosts military parades. Here are 1999 National Day parade.">50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China">1999 National Day parade. Chang'an Avenue (), literally "Eternal Peace Street", is a major thoroughfare in ...

, with the

and

Mao Zedong Mausoleum The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall (), also known as the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, is the final resting place of Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party from 1943 and the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 19 ...

at background center, the

to the left and Great Hall of the People to the right. (''mouse over for labels'') poly 148 187 471 188 472 219 267 247 150 241

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West Chang'an Avenue West Chang'an Avenue () is a major avenue in urban Beijing. It forms part of the extended Chang'an Avenue. Location It stretches from the intersection with Xidan in the west until Tian'anmen Square in the east. The Beijing Books Building and CA ...

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East Chang'an Avenue East Chang'an Avenue () is a major road in Beijing, China. It forms part of the extended Chang'an Avenue. It leaves Tian'anmen Square heading east until the Dongdan intersection. Easily recognised for the crossing with Wangfujing, Beijing's ...

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Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananmen ...

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Huabiao Huabiao () is a type of ceremonial column used in traditional Chinese architecture. ''Huabiao'' are traditionally erected in pairs in front of palaces and tombs. The prominence of their placement have made them one of the emblems of traditional ...

poly 959 249 998 247 1002 309 965 313

poly 1 265 277 373 554 408 905 394 1277 301 1277 427 701 427 435 427 2 426 Tiananmen (Gate Tower) desc top-left

Configuration

Used as a venue for mass gatherings since its creation, its flatness is contrasted by both the 38-meter (125 ft)-high "Monument to the People's Heroes" and the "Mausoleum of Mao Zedong." The square lies between two ancient, massive gates: the Tiananmen to the north and the Zhengyangmen (better known as

Qianmen Qianmen () is the colloquial name for Zhengyangmen (; Manchu:; Möllendorff:tob šun-i duka, literally meaning "Gate of the Zenith Sun"), a gate in Beijing's historic city wall. The gate is situated to the south of Tiananmen Square and once guar ...

) 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 (dedicated to Chinese history predating 1919). Erected in 1989, Liberty, a statue representing the western icon holds her torch over the square.

, 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 large lamp posts which are fitted with video cameras. It is heavily monitored by uniformed and plain-clothes police officers.

Events

Tiananmen Square has been the site of a number of political events and student protests. Perhaps the most notable events that have occurred here were protests during the

May Fourth Movement The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) to protest the Chinese ...

in 1919, the proclamation of the People's Republic of China by Mao Zedong on October 1, 1949, the Tiananmen Square protests in 1976 after the death of

Zhou Enlai Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Ma ...

, and the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 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 ...

after the death of

Hu Yaobang Hu Yaobang (; 20 November 1915 – 15 April 1989) was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China. He held the top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1987, first as Chairman from 1981 to 1982, then as Gene ...

. The latter resulted in military suppression and the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of civilian protestors. One of the most famous images to come from these protests was of a man stood in front of a line of moving tanks and refusing to move, which was captured on Chang'an Avenue near the square. Other notable events included annual mass military displays on each anniversary of the 1949 proclamation until October 1, 1959; the 1984

military parade A military parade is a formation of soldiers whose movement is restricted by close-order manoeuvering known as drilling or marching. The military parade is now almost entirely ceremonial, though soldiers from time immemorial up until the la ...

for the 35th anniversary of the People's Republic of China which coincided with the ascendancy of

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...

; military displays and parades on the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China in 1999; the

Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident The Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident took place in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, on the eve of Chinese New Year on 23 January 2001. There is controversy over the incident; Chinese government sources say that five members of Falu ...

in 2001; military displays and parades on the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China in 2009, and an incident in 2013 involving a vehicle that plowed into pedestrians.

Access

The square, located in the city center, is readily accessible by public transport. Line 1 of the

Beijing Subway The Beijing Subway is the rapid transit system of Beijing Municipality that consists of 25 lines including 20 rapid transit lines, two airport rail links, one maglev line and 2 light rail lines, and 463 stations. The rail network extends acro ...

has stops at Tiananmen West and Tiananmen East, respectively, to the northwest and northeast of the square on

. Line 2's Qianmen Station is directly south of the square. City bus routes 1, 5, 10, 22, 52, 59, 82, 90, 99, 120, 126, 203, 205, 210 and 728 stop north of the Square. Buses 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 17, 20, 22, 44, 48, 53, 54, 59, 66, 67, 72, 82, 110, 120, 126, 301, 337, 608, 673, 726, 729, 901, 90, 特2, 特4 and 特7 stop to the south of the Square. The square is normally open to the public, but remains under heavy security. Before entry, visitors and their belongings are searched, a common practice at many Chinese tourist sites, although the square is somewhat unusual in that domestic visitors often have their identification documents checked and the purpose of their visit questioned. Both plain-clothes and uniformed police officers patrol the area. There are numerous fire extinguishers placed in the area to put out flames should a protester attempt

self-immolation The term self-immolation broadly refers to acts of altruistic suicide, otherwise the giving up of one's body in an act of sacrifice. However, it most often refers specifically to autocremation, the act of sacrificing oneself by setting oneself ...

Gallery

File:TiananmenGatePic1.jpg,

gate to the north of Tiananmen Square File:NationalMuseumofChinapic1.jpg,

on the east side of the Square File:GreatHallofthePeoplepic2.jpg, The Great Hall of the People on the west side of the Square File:BeijingTiananmenSquaregatepicture2.jpg,

Zhengyangmen Qianmen () is the colloquial name for Zhengyangmen (; Manchu:; Möllendorff:tob šun-i duka, literally meaning "Gate of the Zenith Sun"), a gate in Beijing's historic city wall. The gate is situated to the south of Tiananmen Square and once guar ...

Gate Tower marking the south end of Tiananmen Square Image:Monument people's heroes 2.jpg,

and the

occupy the center of the Square File:Monument to the People's Heroes.jpg,

File:Mausoleum von Mao Zedong.jpg,

Image:Tianamen Square-Monument.jpg, Monument in front of Mao's Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square File:Kaiguodadian.jpg, Students attending the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. File:HammerSickle Tiananmen.jpg, A temporary monument in Tiananmen Square marking the 90th anniversary of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

in 2011 File:National mourning for 2008 Sichuan earthquake victims - Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 2008-05-19.jpg, National mourning on May 19, 2008, for the victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake File:November 29 student demonstration, Tiananmen Square.jpg , Students gather for a demonstration in Tiananmen Square, ca. 1917–1919.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 39, 54, 12, N, 116, 23, 30, E, type:landmark, display=title National symbols of the People's Republic of China 1415 establishments in Asia 15th-century establishments in China Dongcheng District, Beijing National squares Squares in Beijing Tourist attractions in Beijing