China - Part 5, Tian'amen Square

Our current topic is Tian'amen Square. Having been there, I would describe it as a great expanse that is not all that interesting, partly because the Chinese will not discuss the entire nature of it's history. What I mean by that is that not 1 single, solitary word was mentioned about the 1989 protests and subsequent massacre that took place. Only polite words were spoken about the government and so on.

Having spent a little of my precious time on this Earth in a country very different than our own, and not wanting to get too political, I will simply say that I value free speech and the overall freedoms that we have a little more than I did the day that we left!

Enough about that...  on to the photos!

This here is an old train station which has no tracks leading up to it in this modern day and age.  If you would notice the "doorway tunnel" in the lower right quadrant of the photo, that's where East/West Trains used to pass through.  Obviously since this in part of Tian'amen Square in the modern day, there are no tracks around this thing to even validate it as a rail station.  I'm not sure what the 10 flag poles would have represented but they had no flags on them for us to learn either.

This shot is from roughtly the same vantage point as the shot above looking at the train station. Way, way. way.... way in the background of this shot, you can see the brick walls that make up the Western wall of the the Forbidden City. You may have to squint.  There's not really a whole lot to see in this photo but I included it because it's essentially where we'll be 'walking' as you view the remaining pics.

This is some type of "federal" building here. It's immediately to the South of Tian'amen Square and I'm sure that Nancy told us something interesting about it, but I can't remember what that would have been.  Once again, there are piles of flag poles on the roof with nary a flag to be seen.

This is looking North (plus slightly East) from the straight line that we were previously walking.  The tower in the left of the photo is Monument to the People's Heroes at the center, I'm not sure what that means to the government or the people, but that's what it is.  The building in the background is the structure best known as the "Great Hall Of The People".  It is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China. It functions as the People's Republic of China's parliament building.  Nary a word was spoken of the 1989 protests and massacres that took place here and in a similar vein, nary a question was asked either!!

I have no idea what this is anymore.  I'm sure Nancy gave us some history on it but with my "mind" being as it is, I have no recollections of what she said. Heck, I'm having trouble even making something up!

The lady in the blue coat sporting the "panda on a stick" is our guide Nancy. She was awesome... probably still is.  She would be telling us historical facts about "the square" and Chinese people would gather from every region. She explained to us that the history of this place was more interesting to the Chinese people walking around than it is to us Americans and I would tend to believe her based on the crowds that gathered around whenever she would start talking about the history that we were experiencing.

This is merely a shot trying to show the great expanse of what we're walking.

This is one of the light poles, of which there were many,  around the tower in the previous photos.  Notice the wiring on this bad boy.  The cameras and breaker boxes alone made me want to come back after dark to see why all of this was wired as such.... almost.

This is one of the many garbage bikes that were riding around the square and for the most part, around Beijing proper.  These dudes had some work to do and I would have been very interested to find out about their compensation package, should they have one.

This is one of two very, very VERY large screens that were installed in the late '90's to advertise all of the fantastic things that China has going on.  This particular advertisement is for the 2010 Asian Games. I'm not sure why they are advertising things in the past, but they were.

This is looking back on the area that we had just traversed by foot.  The vehicle that you can see on the left side of the photo is a police van which was parked just to the side of the big LED screen in the  photo above.  We entered the "square" a long ways back in that photo...

This is looking back on the Monument to The People's Heroes and the two big screens that the government has installed to advertise to all of the tourist, Chinese and otherwise, who visit Tian'amen Square.

A family photo with the West South entrance of the Forbidden City in the background.

This is the underground passageway between Tian'amen Square and the Forbidden City.  It's huge and this photo doesn't do it justice.   We're passing under 6 lanes of traffic and some additional sidewalk area.

This is looking back at where we came up from the underground passageway (on the Forbidden City side of the street).  Look just past the pink hat in the middle of the photo and you'll see the ramp/walkway that we came up out of.  To the left in this photo is the bleachers of the Forbidden City, looking to the West South over Tian'amen Square, and the to the right in this photo is the six lane highway through Beijing, with Tian'amen Square on the other side.

That's it for this post.  We'll pick up with the Forbidden City pics next time.

Thanks for viewing and your continued interest!