Beijing Central Axis

Qianmen (simplified Chinese: 前门; traditional Chinese: 前門; pinyin: Qiánmén; Wade–Giles: Ch'ien-men; lit. 'Front Gate') is the colloquial name for Zhengyangmen (simplified Chinese: 正阳门; traditional Chinese: 正陽門; pinyin: Zhèngyángmén; Wade–Giles: Cheng-yang-men; Manchu:ᡨᠣᠪᡧᡠᠨ ᡳᡩᡠᡴᠠ; Möllendorff:tob šun-i duka, literally meaning "Gate of the Zenith Sun"), a gate in Beijing's historic city wall. The gate is situated to the south of Tiananmen Square and once guarded the southern entry into the Inner City. Although much of Beijing's city walls were demolished, Zhengyangmen remains an important geographical marker of the city. The city's central north–south axis passes through Zhengyangmen's main gate. It was formerly named Lizhengmen (simplified Chinese: 丽正门; traditional Chinese: 麗正門; pinyin: Lìzhèngmén), meaning "beautiful portal".

Qianmen station (simplified Chinese: 前门站; traditional Chinese: 前門站; pinyin: Qiánmén zhàn) is a station on Line 2 and Line 8 of the Beijing Subway located near Qianmen.

The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall (simplified Chinese: 毛主席纪念堂; traditional Chinese: 毛主席紀念堂; pinyin: Máo Zhǔxí Jìniàn Táng), also known as the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, is the final resting place of Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party from 1943 and the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1945 until his death in 1976. Although Mao had wished to be cremated, his wishes were ignored and his body was embalmed. The construction of a memorial hall as his final resting place began shortly after his death. This highly popular attraction is located in the middle of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It stands on the previous site of the Gate of China, the southern (main) gate of the Imperial City during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The embalmed body of Chairman Mao is preserved in the cooler, central hall of the memorial hall in a glass case with dim lighting; it is guarded by a military honor guard. The memorial hall is open to the public every day except Mondays.

The Gate of China (traditional Chinese: 中華門; simplified Chinese: 中华门; pinyin: Zhōnghuámén) was a historical ceremonial gateway in Beijing, China, located near the center of latter-day Tiananmen Square. It was demolished in 1954. This gate formed the southern gate of the Imperial City during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was situated on the central axis of Beijing, to the north of Zhengyang Gate, and south of Tiananmen. Unlike these two defensive gates, the Gate of China was a purely ceremonial gateway, with no ramparts, but was a brick-stone structure with three gateways.

The China Numismatic Museum (Chinese: 中国钱币博物馆; pinyin: Zhōngguó Qiánbì Bówùguǎn) is a museum about currency in Beijing, China.

The Monument to the People's Heroes (Chinese: 人民英雄纪念碑; pinyin: Rénmín Yīngxióng Jìniànbēi) is a ten-story obelisk that was erected as a national monument of China to the martyrs of revolutionary struggle during the 19th and 20th centuries. It is located in the southern part of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, in front of the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The obelisk monument was built in accordance with a resolution of the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference adopted on November 30, 1949, with construction lasting from August 1952 to May 1958. The architect of the monument was Liang Sicheng, with some elements designed by his wife, Lin Huiyin. The civil engineer, Chen Zhide (陈志德) was also instrumental in realizing the final product.The monument has also served as the center of large-scale mourning activities that later developed into protest and unrest, such as the deaths of Premier Zhou Enlai (which developed into the 1976 Tiananmen Incident) and Hu Yaobang (which later developed into the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, which was claimed as an anti-government movement by the Chinese Communist Party at that time).

The Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall (Chinese: 北京市规划展览馆) is an urban planning museum located at 20 Qianmen E St in the old main railway station building from 1903, beside Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The exhibition hall opened to the public on the 9 September 2004, and features a scale model of the entire Beijing metropolitan area, as well as multimedia exhibits on the history, current situation, and future of urban planning in Beijing.

Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng; Wade–Giles: Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3) is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananmen ("Gate of Heavenly Peace") located to its north, which separates it from the Forbidden City. 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 still observed there. The size of Tiananmen Square is 765 x 282 meters (215,730 m2 or 53.31 acres). It has great cultural significance as it was 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, which is also known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre or the June Fourth Massacre.

The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth Clearing or June Fourth Massacre, troops armed with assault rifles and accompanied by tanks fired at the demonstrators and those trying to block the military's advance into Tiananmen Square. The protests started on 15 April and were forcibly suppressed on 4 June when the government declared martial law and sent the People's Liberation Army to occupy parts of central Beijing. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded. The popular national movement inspired by the Beijing protests is sometimes called the '89 Democracy Movement or the Tiananmen Square Incident. The protests were precipitated by the death of pro-reform Chinese Communist Party (CCP) general secretary Hu Yaobang in April 1989 amid the backdrop of rapid economic development and social change in post-Mao China, reflecting anxieties among the people and political elite about the country's future. The reforms of the 1980s had led to a nascent market economy that benefited some people but seriously disadvantaged others, and the one-party political system also faced a challenge to its legitimacy. Common grievances at the time included inflation, corruption, limited preparedness of graduates for the new economy, and restrictions on political participation. Although they were highly disorganized and their goals varied, the students called for greater accountability, constitutional due process, democracy, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech. Workers' protests were generally focused on inflation and the erosion of welfare. These groups united around anti-corruption demands, adjusting economic policies, and protecting social security. At the height of the protests, about one million people assembled in the square.As the protests developed, the authorities responded with both conciliatory and hardline tactics, exposing deep divisions within the party leadership. By May, a student-led hunger strike galvanized support around the country for the demonstrators, and the protests spread to some 400 cities. Among the CCP's top leadership, Premier Li Peng and Party Elders Li Xiannian and Wang Zhen called for decisive action through violent suppression of the protesters, and ultimately managed to win over Paramount Leader Deng Xiaoping and President Yang Shangkun to their side. On 20 May, the State Council declared martial law. It mobilized as many as ~300,000 troops to Beijing. The troops advanced into central parts of Beijing on the city's major thoroughfares in the early morning hours of 4 June, killing both demonstrators and bystanders in the process. The military operations were under the overall command of General Yang Baibing, half-brother of President Yang Shangkun.The international community, human rights organizations, and political analysts condemned the Chinese government for the massacre. Western countries imposed arms embargoes on China. The Chinese government made widespread arrests of protesters and their supporters, suppressed other protests around China, expelled foreign journalists, strictly controlled coverage of the events in the domestic press, strengthened the police and internal security forces, and demoted or purged officials it deemed sympathetic to the protests. More broadly, the suppression ended the political reforms begun in 1986 and halted the policies of liberalization of the 1980s, which were only partly resumed after Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour in 1992. Considered a watershed event, reaction to the protests set limits on political expression in China that have lasted up to the present day. Remembering the protests is widely associated with questioning the legitimacy of the CCP and remains one of the most sensitive and most widely censored topics in China.

The Office Building of the National People's Congress is the office building of the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee. It is located at No. 1 Qianmen West Street, Xicheng District, Beijing.

The National Museum of China (Chinese: 中国国家博物馆; pinyin: Zhōngguó Guójiā Bówùguǎn) flanks the eastern side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. The museum's mission is to educate about the arts and history of China. It is directed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China.

The 2nd Ring Road (Chinese: 二环路; pinyin: èr huán lù) is the innermost ring road highway which encircles the city center of Beijing, People's Republic of China. (The first ring road had been a circular tram route.) The ring road can be divided into two parts: the original ring road (the southern section of which is now excluded from the current ring road), and the newly extended ring road. This article only covers the current (new) 2nd Ring Road.