Postcard from Tiananmen Square

Check out the following video postcard from Tiananmen Square. This massive square, expanded in the 1950s under the orders of Chairman Mao Zedong, is the political center of China. With a capacity to hold 500,000 people, it is the site of many of the famous and infamous protests of yesteryears. When Mao came to power in 1949, one of his major goals was to jettison Beijing's old "feudal" ways. Vast and open, it is meant to stand in direct contrast to the center of the old imperial regimes, represented by the closed and mysteriously backward imperial palace sitting across the street.