Běijīng: Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiān’ānmén)

 

Monday, 22nd April, 2013.

Tiān’ānmén Square is named after the Tiān’ānmén Gate, conventionally translated as "The Gate of Heavenly Peace", although the "Gate of Heavenly Peacemaking" is a closer translation of the original meaning.

Tiān’ānmén was the entrance to the old Imperial City, within which the Forbidden City was located.

Tiān’ānmén is located on the northern end of Tiān’ānmén Square, separated from the square itself by Chang’an Avenue.

 

The original building was first constructed in 1420, was rebuilt several times and was given its present name on its completion in 1651.  By 1969, when it was over 300 years old and badly deteriorated, it was fully reconstructed.  As the gate was a national symbol, then-Premier Zhou Enlai ordered that the rebuilding was to be kept secret. The whole gate was covered in scaffolding, and the project was officially called a "renovation". The rebuilding aimed to leave the gate's external appearance unchanged while making it more resistant to earthquakes and featuring modern internal facilities.

 

Two pairs of stone lions, carved in 1420 and each 2.2 metres high, stand to the north and south of the Golden Water Bridge.  The two male lions are playing with a ball and the two female lions are playing with a baby.  Typical.  In Chinese culture, lions are believed to protect humans from evil spirits.

 

Two stone columns, each with an animal on top, also stand in front of the gate. Originally, these installations were designed for commoners to address their grievances by writing on or attaching petitions to the columns. However, the examples in front of the Imperial City were purely decorative and instead denoted the majesty of the imperial government.

 

Here are all the tourists, mainly Chinese, streaming over the Golden Water Bridge.  I don’t remember noticing whether the water was golden or not, but I’m sure I’d have remembered if it was.  We are all under the watchful eye of Chairman Mao, as well as a row of soldiers, none of whom looked over 17, standing stiffly to attention. 

The giant sign on the left reads "Long Live the People's Republic of China", while the one on the right reads "Long Live the Great Unity of the World's Peoples".  The phrasing has significant symbolic meaning, as the phrase used for “long live”, like the palace itself, was traditionally reserved for Emperors of China, but is now available to the common people (Wikipedia).

 

Portraits of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek have hung on the Tiān’ānmén Gate.   On 1st October 1959, Mao Zedong proclaimed a ‘People’s Republic’ from the Gate to an audience of some 500,000 citizens, and his portrait has been hung there ever since. Each year the old portrait is replaced before October 1, founding day of the People’s Republic of China.

The portrait weighs 1.5 tonnes and is generally replaced by a spare if it is vandalised. In 1989 three dissidents attacked the portrait with eggs. One was sent to prison for 17 years.  In 2010, a protester threw ink in a plastic bottle and hit a wall near the portrait. He was then arrested (Wikipedia).