Measuring 440, 000 square meters, Tiananmen is the most sizable square located in the center of a city in this planet and can hold about one million people for public celebration or gatherings. In the square tourists can climb the Tiananmen Rostrum, attend the national flag raising ceremony every morning (the time varies subject to the sunrise), visit the National Museum of China, and go to the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong in which one will see the body of the great Chinese leader.
The Tiananmen Rostrum, standing to the north of the Tiananmen Square, precisely in the south – north central axis of Beijing, was the main gate of the royal palace of both the Ming and Qing Dynasty. It was initially called Cheng Tian Men or the Gate of Carrying the Heaven, which means that to shoulder the edict of the Heaven, and obtain the divine power form the Heaven. In the eighth year of emperor Shunzhi's administration, the gate was refurbished and called Tiananmen. From then on nearly all the important imperial celebrations and events such as the enthronement of the emperor, the wedding of the emperor, the rite of going to a battle by the emperor himself, the famous "Imperial Edict Issued by Golden Phoenix", worshipping the Heaven and the earth, and worshipping the five sorts of grains among others. The magnificent gate has five passages. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the passage in the middle leading to the Forbidden City was particularly reserved for the emperor himself. The emperor went through the central passage on the way to the altars for rituals and other religious activities, for instance. The high-ranking government officials and the empresses, concubines, princess and princesses could only enter the Forbidden City through the side passages, while the ordinary subjects were absolutely forbidden to go inside the Forbidden City. It is why the city was "forbidden". The 34.7 meters high Tiananmen Rostrum, with glittering yellow glazed tile on the roof and red wall and pillars, is more magnificent in the sunshine. Before the Rostrum are the Golden Water Bridge, the white Huabiao (a pair of ornamental columns made of white marble sculptured with dragon designs. They are also called "slander pillar" for in the ancient time it carried the ordinary people's slanders and suggestions for the emperor) and a pair of big stone lions.
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Tourists attractions in the vicinity of the square are the Monument of the National Hero, the Great Hall People, the National Museum of China, the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, the Zhongshan Park, the Forbidden City, the Cultural Palace of the Working People, (the Temple of the Royal Ancestry), the Zhengyang Gate (Qianmen), the Arrow Gate and the Dashilan of Qianmen etc.
e National Museum of China, and go to the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong in which one will see the body of the great Chinese leader. 
