Tian An Men Square
Tour Day Three: Monday, April 23, 2001
Tian An Men Square with Mao's Mausoleum in the background
After the construction of the Forbidden City in the fifteenth century, there was no open plaza in front of the city's imposing Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tian An Men), the entryway to the seat of imperial power. A jumble of court buildings occupied most of this muddy plot, which separated the residence of the Divine Beings from the singsong girls of the Qianmen District to the south.
In 1919, after the flight of the last emperor, a student protest against the corrupt Japanese-influenced government erupted into what came to be known as the May 4 Incident. This brief assertion of pride betokened the start of china's modern struggle for nationhood — and of Tian An Men Square's role as a locus of history-changing events.
Along with the 1949 victory of the Communist Revolution and its promise to remake China came the wholesale clearing and reconstruction of the square. As a counterbalance to the 250 acres of privilege represented by the Forbidden City, renamed the Palace Museum by the Communists, Tian An Men Square was expanded until it occupied 100 acres.
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