China Tiananmen Square

Back in Beijing we got to take a tour of Tiananmen Square one day.

 This is the central plaza for the capital city of Communist China.  We saw the famous giant portait of Chairman Mao, founder of Communist China.  The the site of imperial edicts from emperors and was used by Chairman Mao Zedong to declare the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.

 Tiananmen Square is the largest public plaza in the world, built at the height of the Ming Dynasty.

 We saw lots of tourists there, mostly Chinese.

 This is the famous Monument to the People's Heroes.

 Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) standing guard.  The PLA is the world's largest military force.

 Another view of Tiananmen Square facing the other direction.

We were lucky to have arrived when they had brought in flower displays for some type of festival.  This is the biggest flower basket I've ever seen.