Tiananmen Square, located in the center of Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China, at the southern end of the Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square and the Monument to the People's Heroes, Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China across Chang'an Avenue, covers an area of 4,800 square meters, with outstanding architectural art and special political status for the world's attention.
Tiananmen Square is located in the middle of the city of Beijing, the Ming Dynasty Yongle 15 years (1417 AD) built, because the construction of the complete imitation of Nanjing's Chengtianmen, so also named Chengtianmen, alluding to the meaning of "inheriting the heavens, ordained by the heavens". The designer is the Ming Dynasty royal architect Ku Xiang. Historically, Chengtianmen has been affected by natural and man-made disasters many times, and in the first year of the Ming Dynasty (1456), Chengtianmen was struck by lightning and burned.
In the first year of Ming Chenghua (1465), under the auspices of The Ministry of Works Shangshu Bai Gui, the Chengtian Gate was rebuilt.
In 1644, Li Zicheng invaded Beijing and burned the Chengtian Gate. A few years later, the Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty ordered the reconstruction, which was renamed Tiananmen after completion.
It means "ordained by heaven, and governed by peace"
。 In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the country was poor and weak, and the repair work of Tiananmen Square was also able to deal with it. In 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance invaded Beijing, looted and shelled Tiananmen, and later the Qing government could only use the British and French coalition forces to burn the inferior pastures demolished in the Yuanmingyuan and the old poplar wood that was not suitable for even ordinary people to repair Tiananmen.
In the changes of China's modern history, Tiananmen Square has a very important significance. In a way, the history of Tiananmen Square is the history of the Chinese revolution in the 20th century. The May Fourth Movement in 1919 broke out in front of Tiananmen Square. On February 3, 1949, to commemorate the peaceful liberation of Peiping by the People's Liberation Army, the Beijing government held a celebration ceremony in Tiananmen Square, and a portrait of Chairman Mao was hung on the tower of Tiananmen Square. Prior to this, the portraits of Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek were also hung here.
On October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao stood on the upper floor of Tiananmen Square and officially proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China. At this time, Tiananmen Square is not only a space for Chinese state leaders to show their political charm, but also a military parade stage to show China's national military strength. From 1953 to the present, Beijing's urban master plan has clearly emphasized the centrality of the central axis of Beijing where Tiananmen Square is located.
After the founding of New China, tiananmen square has been being repaired, and in 1948, there was a 50-meter-wide parade avenue for parades on the north side of Tiananmen Square, mainly for the founding ceremony. In 1950, Beijing undertook a large-scale renovation and expansion project of Tiananmen Square and the road that ran through Dongdan to Xidan. However, with the increasing development of the country, the political significance of Tiananmen Square has become more and more different, so in 1958, Tiananmen Square was expanded on a large scale.
In August 1958, in order to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China the following year, the Central Committee held an enlarged meeting of the Politburo in Beidaihe, and decided to rebuild Tiananmen Square on a large scale and build major construction projects including the Great Hall of the People, the Revolutionary History Museum and the Palace of National Culture, commonly known as the "Ten Great Buildings".
For the size of Tiananmen Square, different experts have different opinions, the Soviet experts who participated in the cooperation in planning the Tiananmen Square project believed that the population of Beijing at that time was only 1.4 million people, and the world's urban squares were "generally five or six hectares", so it should not be too big, and it was almost the same to build a square within 10 hectares, and the area of Moscow's Red Square was only 9 hectares.
As soon as the proposal of Soviet experts came out, it was opposed by Chinese experts, who believed that China was the most populous country in the world, and that Tiananmen Square was the center of mass demonstrations and rallies during political activities, and must not be too small. In October 1956, Chairman Mao said to Peng Zhen: "Will Beijing grow to 10 million people in the future?" When the time comes, people from all over the country will come, what do you do? Chairman Mao's statement is very predictable, and beijing is indeed a big city with a population of tens of millions.
As for the length and width of Chang'an Avenue in front of Tiananmen Square, Soviet experts believe that there is no need to build so wide roads, but most Chinese experts do not agree with the soviet experts' proposals, they believe that it is best to build a wider main road, so that there will be room for development in the future.
With regard to the construction of Tiananmen Square, the departments concerned have successively made dozens of plans and solicited opinions from many quarters, which were finally determined by Chairman Mao's personal guidance to Peng Zhen at the Tiananmen Tower. According to Chairman Mao's intentions, the expanded Tiananmen Square, 500 meters wide from east to west, 860 meters long from Tiananmen to ZhengyangMen, and an area of 44 hectares, is not an expansion at all, this is the reconstruction of a huge square.
Before the expansion of Tiananmen Square, some officers of the People's Liberation Army had found designers and put forward several requirements for them, the first was that Tiananmen Square and East and West Chang'an Avenue required trackless wireless, the second was that it should be able to drive 60 tons of tanks, and the third was that the road and square should be integrated, that is, Tiananmen Square should be integrated with Chang'an Avenue.
As early as 1924, Beijing had already opened trams, with three lines passing through the square and east and west Chang'an Avenue. However, in March 1959, during the construction of Tiananmen Square and Chang'an Avenue, the inner city of Beijing stopped running trams and demolished the tram tracks. Chang'an Avenue could not erect a line, and the original line was changed to underground, so there was the first underground pipeline corridor in Beijing.
In the 1958 Tiananmen Square expansion project, the Zhengyang Gate and the Arrow Tower were preserved, and the Zhonghua Gate, Chessboard Street and the red wall on the square were demolished on the grounds of obstructing traffic, and the demolition of the Zhonghua Gate was strongly opposed by a group of far-sighted experts such as Liang Sicheng. In Liang Sicheng's view, Beijing's political status as the capital of China is far greater than its economic status, and ancient buildings such as the Zhonghua Gate must be protected. However, it was an era of urgent development, and all old obstacles had to be compromised, and a number of old buildings such as the Zhonghua Gate were demolished.
On August 1, 1958, the Monument to the People's Heroes was completed in Tiananmen Square under the design of Liang Sicheng and others. On September 24, 1959, all the expansion of Tiananmen Square was completed. On October 1, the Chinese government held a celebration here to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. After the expansion of Tiananmen Square was completed, some Soviet experts lamented: "If measured by the standards of Tiananmen Square, Red Square can only be regarded as a slightly widened sidewalk." ”