Ros and I visited Tiananmen Square in Beijing during the National Holiday in October which celebrates the proclamation of the Peoples Republic by Mao Zedong.
The square was packed with mostly Chinese tourists. Some of these people, primarily those from rural areas, were seeing Westerners for the first time.
Several people in the square came up to us and asked to… have their pictures taken with Ros – probably the first blonde person they’d seen in real life… see pic below.
(“Yes, it’s real!” says Ros :-))
Tiananmen Square is the largest public square in the world at 440,000 square meters or 4,736,120 square feet. The flat area of the square is broken only by the 38 meter high Monument to the People’s Heroes in the center and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.
The Hall of the People and the National Museum are located on the sides of the Square. The Tiananmen Gate is located at the north end of the square and separates it from the Forbidden City.
There were numerous vender’s selling many different souvenirs but be warned if you show any interest at all you will quickly be surrounded.
Kites seemed to be a popular purchase with the Chinese families and large numbers were flying in the square.
We had planed to visit the Mausoleum and see Mao in his crystal coffin but being the holiday the line was almost as long as the line at security at the airport.
We’ll just have to do it when we go back to Beijing. 🙂
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