Tiananmen Gate or the Gate of Heavenly Peace is the symbol of new China. It is located in the center of Beijing and stands on the northern end of the Tiananmen Square. It was first built in 1420 and was originally called the Gate of Heavenly Succession, which served as the main entrance to the former Imperial City. At the end of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, it was seriously damaged in the war. When it was rebuilt in 1651 in the Qing Dynasty, the name was changed to Tiananmen Gate.

The gate has five passage ways. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the passage way in the middle was used exclusively by the emperor. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Tiananmen Gate was the place where the important state ceremonies for issuing the imperial edict took place, such as the emperor’s enthronement, conferring the honorable title on the Empress or the crown prince, dispatching generals on an expedition to the battles.

Tiananmen Gate consists of two parts, the body of the gate and the tower on the top. It used to be 33.7 meters high and was changed to 34.7 meters after the renovated in 1970. It was on this gate tower that Chairman Mao proclaimed to the whole world the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1st 1949. Since then, Tiananmen Gate has been the symbol of new China. There are two slogans on each side, the one on the east means “Long live the great unity of the people of the world”, and the one on the west means “Long live the People’s Republic of China”. The tower was opened to the public on Jan. 1st 1988 for the first time in the Year of the Dragon.

To the west side of the Tiananmen Gate is theZhongshan Park, formerly called the Altar of Land and Grain. It was built in 1420 for offering sacrificial items to the God of Land. The name was changed to Zhongshan Park in 1928 in memory of Dr. Sun Yatsen, the great pioneer of the Chinese Democratic Revolution. To the east side is the Working People’s Cultural Palace that used to be the Supreme Ancestral Temple, where the tablets of the deceased emperors were kept. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there used to be some rooms in front of the Tiananmen Gate serving as offices of the imperial administration. While the two rows of rooms behind the gate were antechambers for the civil and military officials waiting for the imperial audience given by the emperor.