Tian An Men means "Gate of Heavenly Peace" so Tiananmen Square, at 99 acres the largest square in the world, leads into the Forbidden City.
Below is the "Monument to the Peoples' Heros" erected in 1958 in the middle of the square. Unfortunately more recently two enormous television screens have also been erected in the center.
As one walks through the 250 acres of the Forbidden City, one is constantly passing through gigantic gates and out onto vast squares where one finds buildings such as The Hall of Supreme Harmony, below. There are 9999 rooms in the Forbidden City, the number 9 being of special significance and reserved for the emperor.
The terra cotta army at Xin was made up of life-sized warriors, over 7000 of them plus quantities of life-sized horses, all buried to accompany Qin Shi Huangdi the first Chinese emperor who united China in 221 B.C.
The army was made up of soldiers, archers, charioteers, and officers and no two had the same face.
The wide and powerful Yangtze River completely divided China until 1957 when the first bridge was built over it. For years the Chinese wanted to build a bridge at the major city/former Capitol of Nanjing. American engineers were brought in but said that it was an impossibility due to the softness of the river bottom and the size of the river. Russian engineers began a design but quit and took their plans when the two countries had a falling-out. Consequently the 8 year construction was entirely Chinese and is a great source of pride. It was completed in 1968. Nine piers, each the size of a basketball court, support the double deck bridge. Each pier is 80 meters tall including the 30 meters that are sunk into the river bottom. The upper deck is a highway with a span of 2.8 miles and the lower deck holds a twin-track railway and spans 4.2 miles.
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