Tiananmen Square - Revisited

My first visit to China was in July of 2002. I was teaching in Daegu, South Korea at the time and this trip represented a lot for me. I had always held a fascination with China and many of its cultural symbols and icons. I was mainly intent on seeing the great wall, which was a life long ambition of mine, and the Forbidden city.

Despite my expectations it was Tiananmen Square that had the most resounding impact, the effects of which echoed long after

I had returned to Korea and eventually to Canada. So, there I was two weeks ago when I returned to the square, armed with watching a few hours of Frontline documentaries and a digital camera. I got the same sense I had of the sqaure the first time. We entered from the South end which is lined with giant red flags and a tall square stone statue. The East side of the square is flanked by the Great hall of the People and on the west side there is the Chinese National Museum, curiously no one ever talks about visiting that one. On the northern end of the square is the entrance to the Forbidden city.

When I was walking through the center of all of this, I felt a strong nagging pull; a sense of gravity or weight. This square is the political and cultural power center for a huge nation of billion(s). Not only that, but it is a power that follows rules other that ours. A power that has grown since I had last visited. Standing in the middle of the square is like standing in the middle of the audience chamber of panel of stone and iron giants.

Then I shook it off and started trying to sneak pictures of the soldiers like all of the other tourists were doing.

Coming into the back of the Square from the south east.

The Chinese National Museum


The North end of the Square and the entrance to the Forbidden city.

Gotcha!!

Well, Soldier's don't like to have their pictures taken and will threateningly warn off cameras, which makes them enviable targets. There is a lot of apprehension amongst visitors here with regards to the massacre in 1989 and the police controls. There is definitely a strong police and military presence in the square and, since '89, it has been shut down every night at 7pm.

An infamous image...

The hotel from where it was taken.