CHINA 11:

THE HILLMAN 2013 ASIAN ADVENTURE
100s of Photos Documenting a 6-week tour of
Malaysia ~ Singapore ~ Thailand ~ China
Section II: China
www.hillmanweb.com/china2013/china11.html
Photos by Bill and Sue-On
Captions by Sue-On (expanded from our FaceBook pages)
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Gallery 11:
Tiananmen Square I

We walked a long ways through a tunnel
across a very busy street to an entrance to Tiananmen Square.
When we arrived, we were told that this entrance was
closed to pedestrians that morning because of a special event
at the People's Great Hall.
We had to go all the way back then take another tunnel to a second entrance.

Here we are finally, at the end of the second tunnel and
being allowed access to the Square.

Once through tunnel exit, we passed many shops catering to the tourists.
Was this a merchandising ploy?

On our way, we passed the Railway Museum.
The tower may be the Archery Tower, origianlly built in 1439 to serve as a watch tower.
This is a newer version built in 2007.
The street is called QianMen Street, and is
quite a lively place in the evenings with cabarets, tea houses nearby.

This is QianMen Gate, directly south of Tiananmen Square.
It means "Front Gate" that once served as the outer entrance to the Forbidden City.
Outside of this gate, the area was traditionally focussed on retail and entertainment.
And, it seems to still be that way today.

Traditional lanterns lead the way through Qianmen Street.

The businesses are located in traditonal style buildings.

Finally, we are getting close to the Square.

But... the street and Square are blocked off by barricades!

There were solitary soldiers stationed along the barricade...

...as well as a police presence

The police cruisers don't look menacing,
but I am sure they are super efficient in tight quarters.

And, there were squads of soldiers,
or cadets marching through the crowds.
They didn't appear to be seasoned soldiers.

Tiananmen Square Maps from Tourist Brochures

Click to see these China Tourist Maps in full size
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Hundreds of Photos with Captions

CHINA	MALAYSIA / SINGAPORE

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Bill and Sue-On Hillman Eclectic Studio
hillmanweb.com
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada