Best Plazas in China

One of the must visit places in Beijing, it requires quite a task. They have quite a thorough security checking at the entrance, requiring you to stay in queue for at least 40-45 mins (and they said the people visiting were less as it is winter). So make yourself prepared for the long wait and the queue if you’re planning to go there.

Visited Nov 2015

Tiananmen Square is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China. The square contains the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China in the square on October 1, 1949; the anniversary of this event is observed. The size of Tiananmen Square is 765 x 282 meters (215,730 m2 or 53.31 acres). It is the site of several important events in Chinese history.

Outside China, the square is best known for the 1989 protests and massacre that ended with a military crackdown.

I was just blown away to be walking around Tiananmen Square. It's free but you need tickets. The tickets are not easy to get if you don't speak Chinese and aren't hooked up to Wechat. We asked at our hotel reception (Grand Mercure Beijing Central) and they gladly booked the tickets for us - seems like that is completely normal here.

Even with tickets getting inside is a real challenge. There are several security gates on different sides. I read the south entrance was the best, so we took the metro to Qianmen station. This was a mistake.

Everything was fenced off and security everywhere. We followed instructions, and the crowd, and found ourselves walking east almost all the way to Beijing Railway Station, before crossing the road and turning back. We ended up at the South East corner of the square in a huge queue, and the Chinese, despite being great hosts in many ways, do not know how to queue. It took us over an hour to get in.

Later we accidentally left Tiananmen Square trying to get to the Forbidden City, which is not the right thing to do, and found ourselves needing to go through security again to get back in. I was preparing myself for another huge queue, but we got back inside in five minutes. Who knows? Seems very random.

Inside you are free to roam where you wish, and nobody bothers you. There are a lot of tourists, but there's so much space inside that you can see everything clearly if you look for a good vantage point.

If you want to visit anywhere connected to Tiananmen Square, and that includes Mao's Mausoleum, the National Museum and the Forbidden City, you need to access Tiananmen Square to do so. I read that you don't need a ticket for the Square if you have a ticket for any of these places, but I wouldn't take any chances!

In truth only our passports were looked at when we passed through security - no machines were scanned or computers checked - so we might not even have needed anything. But you don't want to queue for hours and then get turned back.

This large open square is one of the highlights that should be on anybody's list that is visiting China. A piece of ancient history which I visited during my grouptour. You are in need for tickets to enter but the visit itself is free of charge. Be aware that people speak very few words of English and Wechat is used for payment so getting a hold of some can be difficult.

Visited it as part of a Palace Museum tour. Understood from our guide that sometimes it may be closed (without prior warning) for parades and visits by foreign dignitaries.

Tiananmen Square stands as an emblematic symbol of China's rich history and cultural heritage. Visiting this expansive square in the heart of Beijing is an absolute must for anyone exploring the capital city.

All museum visits need to be booked and paid via wechat app in advance, so non-chinese may need to ask a Chinese for help with that. Otherwise, it is just overwhelming to visit the Forbidden City(a whole day is just not enough for me), National museum (which I took 4 hours for exhibition at the basement and top floor.), Mao memorial hall(free for visit, it's amazing that this the place probsbly with the highest density of population but the quietest in China.), and the building of TianAnMen itself where you can have the 360 degree view of the whole square just like the chairmen does when there is the parade.

A huge ancient place with lots of history and lots of corners to visit and observe. I visited this place as part of a tour with a tourist agency, and so cannot talk much about tickets and bookings. The tour was well organized, and I believe we visited the entire place. There are restrooms and kiosks to buy snacks and drinks, but not widely available. Expect to spend 2 hours here.