Event: China - Beijing

Tian'anmen

When:	Daily
Where:	Tian'anmen
Costs:	Free
Opening Hours:	Daily 24 hours

Tiananmen, in the centre of Beijing, is an attraction in itself. The world's largest square may not be beautiful, but it is where Mao founded the People's Republic in 1949 and where hundreds were massacred 40 years later.

Set in front of the Forbidden City, surrounded by important buildings of the Communist Party and with Chairman Mao's mausoleum standing at its centre, Tian'anmen - Gate of Heavenly Peace - represents the core of both modern and ancient China. Lying at the centre of a nation of 1300 million people it is, however, slightly less spectacular than might be expected, as it was cleared and remodelled in the 1950s to mark the ascendancy of the Chinese Communist Party and to break with the past.

Nonetheless, the square definitely ought to remain a top attraction on anyone's Chinese itinerary, as it is heavily imbued with symbols of power from both the past and the present.

To many Chinese, Chairman Mao was more than a mere human and the pilgrimage to his embalmed corpse has almost religious proportions. The reluctance to let go of the icon of Mao despite the recent drive towards capitalism also marks the dualism and contradiction of today's China -- a nation projecting an image of openness and progress but retaining many of the entrapments of the past.

The northern side of the square is marked by the Tiananmen Gate Tower, with its Five-Star Red Flag flying high and a monumental painting of Chairman Mao. In the centre stands the Monument to the People's Heroes as well as the Chairman Mao mausoleum, while the eastern and western sides are flanked by the Great Hall of the People and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution.

Tiananmen Square was also the site of the violently-crushed 1989 pro-democracy rallies that saw thousands of casualties among the demonstrators and many more people imprisoned, an event that still scars the modern history of China. Moreover, it was here that alleged Falun Gong members immolated themselves, thereby provoking a major crackdown on the sect by the government.