Our Tiananmen Experience

Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China – July 2025

OK, that was an impressive show at Tiananmen Square earlier in the month… A grand military parade, immaculate march-pasts, rousing choir, and scores of world leaders. Most of ‘em from the non-western world… like Putin and Kim Jong-Un (nah, take that, Trump!), together with the Chinese leader, Xi. (If that wasn’t deliberate, I’d change my name to …Donald Trump. On second thoughts, Netanyahu, would be better, more hated, by all and sundry! Burn in hell, you megalomaniacal mass murderer!)

Our own Tiananmen experience was a huge difference. No grand parades. No fancy choir. Just rain, and a lot of people, and I mean A LOT (it’s the world’s most populous country after all. Still is, I think. Or is it India now?). Getting in is easier said than done, mind you. First of all, it’s now cordoned off by barricades on all sides, and guarded by zealous guards all over. (Since Dec 2021, I read). I guess it must be to prevent things from getting out of hand, like what happened in 1989. "Why, what happened in 1989?" "Ummmmm… nothing! Who said anything about 1989??" (Shhhhh… don’t even mention 1989 in China. If the authorities could have it, they’d erase 1989 from history).

Anyway, to get into the square, you’d have to register in advance, between 1 to 7 days before your visit. It’s free of charge, and, unlike the Forbidden City (now officially named the Palace Museum) which adjoins it, there is no limit to the amount of people that could enter in a day. (The limit for the Palace Museum by the way, is 40,000 visitors per day, and tickets sell out really fast. No, I didn’t hang around to check how fast they sell out. I set an alarm to remind me of the time that the tickets opened up for sale, (which is 8pm, Chinese time, 7 days before the day of your intended visit) and I bought them immediately in the first few minutes, when they opened. I checked about 2 hours later, and they’re all sold out! So, if you wanna visit, plan in advance. Oh, and the Palace Museum is closed on Mondays, as are a few other attractions in Beijing like the Summer Palace and the Temple to Heaven. Bear that in mind if you are visiting Beijing as a tourist).


Tiananmen, or the Gate of Heavenly Peace is the red building, bearing the humongous portrait of Chairman Mao in the middle of Beijing. (Tian-An-Men 天安门literally means Heaven-Peace-Door). It is actually the main entrance to the Forbidden City, the palace where the Chinese Emperors used to reside, hence ‘Gate’, although it looks nothing like a gate in this picture here. The large square to the south and adjoining Tiananmen is the famous (infamous?) Tiananmen Square

Back to Tiananmen Square, because there is no limit to the number of visitors that could visit, plus, the strict security protocols that are in place to screen all who enters, you can imagine the crowds.


That’s where we started queuing, I think it’s Méishì Street (煤市街), the spot where our Didi driver dropped us off. He said this is the better queue. Is it? Who knows? All the other queues did look longer… That oriental building seen here is the Zhèngyángmén 正阳门, or Zhengyang Gate, the other entrance to Tiananmen Square, on the opposing side to Tiananmen… The rain doesn’t look like it’s deterring anyone from going, sigh…

To register to enter Tiananmen Square, you’d need a few things: -
No.1) Weixin, or WeChat, (because there’re mini-programs in WeChat, which are like websites in the rest of the world, where we fill in our details and book our appointments, and pay if you need to, and it’s all inside WeChat);
No.2) a Chinese mobile phone number (yup, you need to fill this in, in the mini-programme, or it wouldn’t let you proceed. Luckily, I have some close Chinese friends/ work colleagues, and I ‘borrowed’ a friend’s number, just for that purpose. After that, the programme wouldn’t ask for the number anymore); and
No.3) some ability to read Chinese, (because the whole thing is in friggin Chinese. That’s where Google Translate and Lens came in really useful. But remember, both don’t work inside China, so be prepared and get an alternative, before you board your plane to China).


Jeez, it’s more than half an hour since we started. it doesn’t look like we’re making any progress… And they’re no foreigners at all in our queue. They’re all Chinese, domestic tourists, from all over China, not Beijingers (I guess Beijingers would be sick of this place by now)

For me, I had some problems trying to register for the entry into Tiananmen Square. I tried 3 friggin times, OK? Filling out all the information. In Chinese! And screen-shooting it to check on Lens and Translate. (After 3 times, you’d be an expert, even if you don’t exactly know what the Chinese words are). And submitting, only to receive a ‘Failure’ message after a few minutes of waiting! (In hindsight, maybe, I tried it a day too early?!?) Finally, I tried a different method. Somewhere in the translation, I read that if you have an appointment to visit Chairman Mao’s Memorial Hall, which sits right smack inside Tiananmen Square, you’d not need to register separately to visit Tiananmen Square. And so, I proceeded, like how I booked the tickets for the Palace Museum, for Chairman Mao’s Memorial Hall. It’s free, and the slots open at 12.30pm, Chinese Time, 6 days, before your intended day of visit, and bingo! I succeeded!


Whew! We’re in!! After 2 friggin hours! That pillar is the Monument to the People’s Heroes, and behind that, the National Museum of China

But why do you wanna get into Tiananmen Square? You could actually see the entire square from Tiananmen itself, (I didn’t know that!?!). Yup, from that entrance arch of the Forbidden City, the one with Chairman Mao’s photo. Unless, you have loads of time at your hand, or that you really wanna pay your respect to the Chairman in his Memorial Hall (which is also his mausoleum, which is where all the Chinese tourists are headed to, I think), I would suggest that you give it a miss, and spend more of your valuable time elsewhere. But if you love bigger-than-life leaders, queues, and mingling with the Chinese crowds, then go ahead and dive straight in.


Chairman Mao Memorial Hall / Mausoleum, Tiananmen Square, Beijing

Our appointment slot for the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was 9.30am up till ummph… 10.15am, if I remember correctly. We got into Tiananmen Square at 11am! Way past our appointment time (how would we know they’d be a friggin 2-hour queue!). But the guards there aren’t really strict about the timing, I guess. They check your passports (or, for the Chinese, their IDs), and the appointment date, and you’d have to clear security like how you do it in the airports, scan all your bags, jackets, phones, umbrellas, water bottles, what-have-you… and you’re in. But we were also in a hurry to get to the Forbidden City, on that same day, because our tickets for it were for the morning session, meaning you should get in there before 12 noon (no, there’s no time limit for you to leave after that, you could stay until its closing time). So, we decided to give the mausoleum a miss… Sorry, Chairman Mao!


Look at the queue waiting to get into Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum. “OK, Chairman, I’d love to visit, but it’d be another hour, or more, to get in, to pay our respects, judging from the queue. So, we’d not be visiting this time, OK?”


Jayden and the People’s Heroes Monument, Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China


Partly drenched, but unfazed, Tiananmen Square, with the National Museum of China, behind. Don’t mind the Chinese tourists. They’re totally oblivious to others trying to take photos. They’re not camera-shy at all, unlike in some countries, where people run out of the way, or duck down when we lift up our phones/ cameras. Chinese will just stand there immobile, with their bored looks, or dazed looks, or however they look, doing whatever they were doing. And they’ll not mind moving into your camera vision… in front of whatever you want to take, unless you push them out of the way. Patience, people. “Here, uncle, why don’t you stand here instead. There, isn’t this better?” “No, no, no, auntie, not there. Give us, just a few seconds, will you? Xiexie, xiexie!” (Now, try saying all that in Chinese, so that they’d understand!)


Flowers in Tiananmen Square. See, you could actually see the whole square from the National Museum of China, or from Tiananmen (Gate) itself, without entering the square. The only thing blocking it for people to enter, are the rows of barricades, and the guards!


Let’s go, before we’re too late for the Palace Museum! Forbidden City (Gùgōng 故宫), here we come! Approaching the Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen)


Going through Tiananmen! The words actually read "Long live the People's Republic of China! Long live the great unity of the people of the world!" See, they actually meant good!


We’ve reached the Palace Museum’s entrance. Now, let’s see, …where the heck are our tickets?! Shit, it should be in the email somewhere!?! I have internet (bought a Chinese SIM Card at the airport), but the problem is that all the friggin email platforms that we use, don’t bloody work in China! No Yahoo, no Gmail, WTF! Whew, it’s in Yahoo Mail. Luckily, the old mails are still there. It just doesn’t receive new emails…


OK, that’s all for this post. The Forbidden City will be another story, for another time to tell. Leaving you here with a photo of our breakfast at Holiday Inn Express, Beijing Temple of Heaven – Jul 2025. Cheers!