Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City

Monday, June 28
After an hour flight (our fifth this trip with just one return trip to Chicago to go!) we arrived in Beijing, the capital of the People’s Republic of China. Our first stop: Tiananmen Square, the world’s largest public gathering place. Located on the square: Chairman Mao’s mausoleum, where his body has been preserved and displayed since his death in 1976, the national museum, their capitol building, where the people’s representatives meet and discuss the business of the nation and the Forbidden City. It really is an enormous space.
Perhaps Tiananmen Square is best known for the student protests which ended in a government crackdown and hundreds of deaths. Though we did not ask our Chinese guide about these events, she said that most tourists do ask about what happened and so she explained to us that no one could know for sure what happened during those days in 1989. Though she was alive in 1989, she was a small girl. She said the students began their protests against government corruption, which they mistakenly believed existed. First the demonstrations were entirely peaceful but in the end, “some people died”. She added that who exactly died was uncertain, perhaps it was soldiers maybe some students or actors. This is all complete garbage, of course, but it is impossible for Chinese to learn what really happened then and there because their news and internet are censored.
In any case these events, which are unclear to many, if not most, Chinese, are less important to them than the fact that it was from the balcony of the wall surrounding the Forbidden City that Chairman Mao declared the beginning of the People’s Republic, the beginning of “New China” which is a phrase we have heard so often during this trip.
The Imperial Palace, once known as the Forbidden City because it was forbidden to most except the emperor, his wives and advisors, was gorgeous, and much larger than I had imagined. It’s one of those things that you have to experience to understand and I am so grateful to have seen it for myself. Almost time to come home and I am looking forward to seeing everyone and sleeping in my own bed!

*** Editor's Note: Tiananmen Square is 108.7 acres or 440,000 square meters ***