Beijing August 02: Morning in Tianamen Square

Tianamen Square is, as per the lonely planet, the center of the Chinese Universe. Most people have heard of it beacause of the student uprising that occurred in Tianamen Square way back in 1989. I have also read that Falun Gong members have regularly been arrested there for acts of protests. At any rate, Tianamen Square is one of the places a person must go if they go to Beijing. But once is enough I think!

Sculpture in Tianamen Square

Thousands and millions of words have already been written about Tianamen, and all of those are no doubt far more eloquent than anything we can say. What is Tianamen Square: well, it is just that, a big, flat square in the middle of Beijing surrounded by official buildings and the Heavenly Gate that leads to the Forbidden City. So apart from that we will not say too much about the square itself (and no, we didn't visit Mao's Mausaleum).

Mom in Tianamen Square

For Queenie and I it is the second time we have been to this famous/notorious bit of real estate in the middle of Beijing. The first time was way back in the winter of 2005 on the back end of a six week tour of China. It was the middle of a deep winter and the temperature at the time was -9C - FREEZING - and the square was empty (see China Travelogue 8: Lanzhou to Beijing). Anyway, this time around it was a muggy, hot, humid August day - and there were a lot of people moving in and out of the square. They even had a security check point with x-ray machines (this wasn't there the last time we visited)and it is probably only there for the summer (at -9C Queenie and I were the only two people in the Square).

Mom & Queenie in Tianamen Square

Mom & Queenie in Tianamen Square

The good thing about going to Tianamen Square this time was that we could actually get our pictures taken in the square. The last time we were here we took pictures but our memory chip got destroyed so we don't have any pictures of this part of our trip round China! Not good. So we go some pictures of us here and also a video (see below) but other than that, it was a fairly uneventful visit and walk through the square. If back in Beijing would I visit it again: depends on the weather. In the heart of winter no and in the heat of summer no - probably a cool spring/autumn evening would be nice, but there is nothing else that is compelling to draw me back there.

After visiting Tianamen Square we visited the Forbidden city (but didn't go in as too many people) and also Beihai. All in all it was a pretty awesome day.