Our first afternoon’s visit was to Tiananmen Square. The square is named after the Tiananmen Building, which came first. The Tiananmen Building was the entrance to the Imperial Palace. Tiananmen means the gate of heavenly peace. It has, however, been anything but peaceful at many times.

Chairman Mao used the Tiananmen Building for his office later on and he gave many speeches from it. The square itself is about 100 acres and can hold one million people.

Buildings at the corners of the square are the Tiananmen Building, the Great Hall of the People (for the Chinese national congress), Mao’s Tomb, which sits in front of the old city gate, and the Chinese History Museum. There are also other statues and things to see.

Tiananmen Square had plenty of people when we were there but it was not crowded. Most people in the square appeared to be Chinese tourists. We saw lots of people flying kites and doing things like that. There were a few guards either standing guard or marching in twos.