Chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall

The chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall stands on the former sits of Zhonghuamen Gate at the southern end of Tian'anmen Square between the Monument to the People's Heroes and Zhengyangmen Gate. Completed in May 1977, just 8 months after the death of Mao Zedong (1893-1976), the memorial hall is shaped like a square with coverage of 20,000 square meters and a height of 33.6 meters.

Chairman Mao was born on December 26, 1893, in Hunan Province. He passed away in Beijing on September 9, 1976, at the age of 83. The hall is 260 meters long from north to south, 220 meters wide from east to west. It has five parts: the Courtyard, the Memorial Hall, the North Hall, the Viewing Hall and the South Hall. In the north hall there is a 3.5 meter (12ft) seated figure of Mao sculptured in white marble. The back wall of this hall is covered by a huge brocade landscape tapestry that is 24 meters (79ft) wide. In the Hall of Mourning (the Memorial Hall) at the heart of the mausoleum, lies Mao in his usual gray suit, draped with the red flag of the Communist Party, in a crystal casket. Made of black granite, the coffin platform is surrounded by flowers. The rare phoebe nanmu wood of the doors and walls was transported from a peak on Hainan Island under the supervision of Zhou Enlai. Revolutionary achievements of Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De are on display in the west and the east halls. Inside the halls, visitors can found many cultural relics, historical documents, letters and pictures. A famous poem written by Mao has been inscribed in gold by the great calligrapher Guo Moruo in the last hall to the south.