Tiananmen Sq.

Tiananmen Square is the huge, open square in the middle of Beijing. It's mostly just empty, open space, with the Mao Shrine (which we skipped) and a war memorial in the middle. There is a gate at one end, and the Forbidden City is on the other end. I didn't find the square very interesting. In fact, the most interesting thing about the square to me is the long line of Chinese waiting to enter the Mao Shrine for a glimpse of his body in the morning or the huge crowd waiting for the Chinese flag to be lowered.



The best quote on Tiananmen Square in Lonely Planet:

Bicycles cannot be ridden across Tiananmen Square (apparently tanks are OK), but you can walk the bike.
There is also a gate (Qianmen) at the edge of Tiananmen square, which you can go upstairs to get a good view of the line to see Mao.