Travel Notes #城市地标
Tiananmen Square: An Eight-Hundred-Metre Central Axis
Eight hundred eighty metres north to south, five hundred east to west, 440,000 square metres, room for a million people. In the Ming and Qing it was a T-shaped street that ordinary subjects could not enter; only after the founding ceremony of 1 October 1949 did it become what it is.
Jiefangbei: The Monument That Beats at the Heart of Chongqing
There is a spot in Chongqing where time folds in on itself. A 27.5-metre stone spire stands at the centre of a swirling intersection, ringed by glass skyscrapers and flashing neon. This is Jiefangbei — the Liberation Monument — and it is far more than a landmark. It is the only monument in China dedicated to the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, a silent witness to a city that refused to break, and today the pulsing heart of southwest China's most dazzling commercial district. To understand Chongqing, you must start here.