home of the emperor

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City:

"standing in this square, you can feel the communism." -justin
that about sums up the feeling of this place. it is a huge square in front of the forbidden city gate entrance and is surrounded by government buildings and museums. this was once the route the emperors took to get to their palace, and any visitors had to walk about a 2 mile distance through 7 gates beginning at one end of the square going all the way to the end where the emperor would greet them. a picture of Mao Zedong hangs on the front of the gate over looking the square. he was a leader of the communist party during the civil war, and eventually a leader of the people's republic of china. the city was under lots of construction and renovation while we wewre there gearing up for the olympic games this summer.