Much of today's Tian'anmen Square was transformed after 1949 into what we see today. Previously there ran a ceremonial avenue along which Imperial processions would head towards Qianmen or ‘Front Gate'. It followed the historic north-south axis line on which Beijing was laid out.
I reached the 36-meter-high Monument to the People's Heroes, an obelisk of Qingdao granite, completed in 1958. Calligraphy by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai adorns its facade.
