A View of the Northern Facade of Mao Zedong Mausoleum at Tian'An Men Square (Photo November 2004).
North-Western Composition: The common people from every province in the Nation Unite under the Banner of Chairman Mao and the Communist Party of China.
The Eastern Composition at the North Face of Mao Mausoleum : The Revolutionary 8Th Route Army forges ahead against overwhelming odss in the Defense of the Nation and the common People.
Have your picture taken while standing in front the low fence of the Mausoleum (Photo November 2003). Mao Mausoleum a Symbol of World Communism !
The Great Leap (Forward) - Communism in China, find out about it and see the Documentary !
Depictions of Proud Revolutionaries, Men and Women from all corners of the Nation who carried the banner for their Chairman and Leader Mao. (Photo November 2003).
View of the closed Gate and empty North Face of Mao's Monument with details of fencing and communist statues of workers and soldiers united under the banner of the Communist Party.
View of the empty North Face of Mao's Monument clearly showing the security camera's which always keep a big brother-like watch at Mao Mausoleum and the National Square of Tian'AnMen.
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Close-Up of the Peasants, Workers and Soldiers - peoples from all walks of life, United under the Banner of Socialism and the Communist Party of Mao Zedong.
One of the especially plain uniformed members of the designated Guard Detail of the Mausoleum on a lonely watch outside the North Facade.
The whole complex building of the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall is inspired by the turbulent Life of Mao Zedong and the great successes of the Communist Party and the Nation of China under his Leadership. As a Memorial to his war-time travels and many battles fought throughout nearly all provinces of the Nation, for his unification of Chinese hearts for a common goal and for the inspiration he carried to all corners of the new Nation of the Peoples Republic of China, materials were used from many regions and places. It is said that common peoples from all over China participated in the design of this Memorial.
After his Death in 1976 AD, a fitting Monument had to be bestowed in Memory of this Greatest Political Leader of China in Centuries. Not only had Mao Zedong been Chairman of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China from 1943 AD onwards, and had been the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from 1945 AD until his Death, no, this was a Great Leader who had United the Nation under one common cause and flag to fight against Foreign Domination, the Japanese and against the wrongs of Chinese Feudal Society. As such Mao Zedong could compare himself directly to National Heroes such as Ch'In Shi Huangdi, Kangxi and his Grand-son Qianlong and other mighty and powerful leaders with extra-ordinary vision.
Apart from using rare and expensive materials from all over the Nation and having a complicated inner mechanism involved in the optimum preservation and exclusively lighted display of Mao's Body, the Mausoleum has a Guard Detail assigned exclusively to the protection of this National Monument. Guards are found inside the Building at regular intervals and stand outside the building as an Honorary Guard to the Chairman's Shrine. The exterior of the Building is Grandiose yet Solemn, surrounded by large and magnificent statues depicting and commemorating the brethren of the Revolution that Mao fought with and later had under his Command.
As described by discussions of the Communist Party itself during the Rise of Deng XiaoPing and the resulting denouncement of Hua GuoFeng, cost of the Mao Zedong Mausoleum were staggering. As a result of various materials
According to a so far unique publication on the subject by China Pictorial in 1977 AD, among the materials used are granite from Sichuan Province, porcelain plates from Guangdong Province, and
Abandoned and closed North Facade of Mao Zedong Memorial Hall on a sunny but cold afternoon in November 2003.
Yan'An was the remote home of the War Time legendary headquarters of the resilient Communist Party established at the end of the Long March, a place were Mao lived for years, met and married his 3rd wife Jiang Qing (Li Shumeng), and where he wrote his greatest political works.
It was however also the place where Mao first established and perfected a regime of terror, which would later come to ravage the nation and its very soul, where he met Jiang Qing who would later become the new China's most hated woman, destroyer of lives, livelihoods and culture, and where political lies were perfected until they became truths, no the national faiths.
Autonomous Region - the Western Most Borders of the New Nation established under Mao, earth from the quake-stricken Tangshan (hit shortly before Mao's Death, at 3:42 am on July 28, 1976, a by a devastating magnitude 7.8 sized earthquake), color pebbles from Nanjing - the old Ming Dynasty Capital and home of the United National Government of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen and the conquered base of the loathed KuoMinTang National Government defeated in 1949 AD, and milky quartz from the Kunlun Mountains - the Taoist Mythical Paradise.
Still other construction materials and elements used include pine logs from Jiangxi Province - the Province where Mao had helped build a First Communist Base Area and Government and from where the legendary Long March had departed, and rock samples from Mount Everest, the Top of the Earth in Tibet Autonomous Region
annexed by China in 1950/51 AD.
A last noteworthy detail is provided though the use of Water and Sand extracted from the Taiwan Straits. At Mao's Death, the only remaining part of the Nation that had not been "re-united with the motherland", as Mao used to put it, was Taiwan. It was Mao's unfulfilled dream to have the island liberated.
In 1953 Mao had already been at the sea-side at BeidaHe proclaiming "We must Liberate the Island of Taiwan" and, according to his body guard(s), in later Life, when at the sea-side Mao's Eyes would often dwell on the Horizon as if searching for the Island of Taiwan and a way to regain it. Even the defeated Chiang Kai-Shek had agreed, Taiwan is "an inalienable part of China", but the island nation remained de facto independent and always just out of reach.
The sands and waters from the Taiwan Straits were used to symbolically emphasize this Dream and Wish of reunification with Taiwan (under Communist Party Rule), and of course to subtly affirm the People's Republic of China's claims to ultimate Sovreignty over the Island Nation of Taiwan today.
used and the wasting of funds on various ploys to symbolically involve The Peoples in the Construction and design of this Grand Memorial, the construction of the mausoleum of Mao cost ten times more than that of the Great Hall of the People, even with price adjustments calculated in.
Dwell around the North Face to have a look at the Gargantuan Stone Carvings declaring with Pride the Success of the Chinese Communist Revolution and/or have your picture taken in front of the impressive North Facade guarded by Plain Uniformed Guardians of the Revolution.
It is a coming and going of visitors and camera's here as this is the favorite photo-op on the large yet often crowded Tian'An Men Square.
To visit, Line up at the Eastern Flank of the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall.
Life and Achievements of Mao Zedong
Mao was born on December 26Th 1893 AD and grew up as the son of peasants in a remote city village in Hunan Province. After an active life as a young political thinker in his native home - among things enlisted in the Army during the 1911 AD National Revolution to fight on the side of the Revolution, Mao saw his Rise to political and historical greatness start in earnest with his travels to and stay in Beijing.
Grandiose Stone Carved Statue's decorating Mao's Monument .
Movement, was Mao's immediate Boss.
The Beijing University itself had just seen the May the Fourth of 1919 AD and fostered the movement arisen from it.
by revolutionary thoughts and many were inspired by the success of the Communist Revolution in neighboring Russia. From Beijing onwards developments would move swiftly, with Mao Zedong always at the forefront of Revolutionary Action. Through his participation in political developments brewing at Beijing University Mao Zedong had become a radical thinker, one of many in the New Nation arising from the ashes of failed Feudal Rule.
Mao went on to be among the founding Members of the Communist Party of China, established during the First Session of the National Committee of the Communist Party of China in July of 1921 AD in Shanghai.
Through the years 1921 to 1924 AD Mao moved swiftly up in rank, already becoming one of the five main Commissars of the Party Central Committee in 1923 AD, receiving his assignment back to his native Hunan Province in order to organize and sustain
his own party branch of the Communist Party in Hunan (at the Time the Communist were still a part of the larger National Party Chinese KuoMinTang), and become a Delegate to the First KuoMinTang National Congress in Shanghai in 1924 AD.
Although Mao certainly was not in a position of moral leadership or authority within the core of the Communist Party which was strictly under guidance from "Moscow" (Joseph Stalin and the ComIntern), this short stint in Hunan did provide him the opportunity to strike out for himself and learn a few basic lessons that would come to serve him greatly in the future. Among things Mao learned that the multitude of Chinese were ignorant peasants, who were powerless but by the many millions. He also learnhed that the peasants would follow anyone who would reward them and take up their case against the corruption of the rich and powerful, of land-owners and money lenders. Crucially Mao also learned the exhilaration of Revolutionary violence and the brutal techniques of intimidation practiced by street thugs and common criminals. Intimidation and murder worked to overpower those who had doubts, which was a lesson which would be put to its use many times over in the coming decennia throughout China. That revolutions needed to be violent and were "No Tea Party" would later often be proclaimed by Mao, and it would be a commonly held view encouraged in the "Red Guards" during the ultra-leftist, fascist and destructive "Cultural Revolution" Era (1958 - Offically 1966 - September 1976).
Furthermore, apart from learning the techniques of revolt, intimidation and thuggery, Mao Zedong was finally able to establish his own party group, which could later serve as his alternative center of political thought and leadership. In due time, over many years, Mao Zedong would build this Hunan Party Branch into his own powerclique to serve his political goals and idea's for a new China, naturally - he felt- under his leadership.
During the May the 4Th Protest of 1919 AD Mao traveled to Beijing with his high school teacher and benefactor Professor Yang Changji, a Man who held a faculty position at the University and who arranged for Mao to be in an important position for further developments in his Life.
Not only did Mao marry the Professors Daughter (Yang Kaihui), with whom he lived nearby the Beijing University in a small Hutong Home in DongCheng District just North-East of the Bell Tower of Beijing, more importantly still
- through the recommendations of his older Friend Mao was employed as a Library worker at the renowned Beijing University, a bullwark of political thought and activities.
In Beijing the now famed Li Dazhao, co-founder of the New Cultural
Apart from having his Job at the Library Mao became a part-time student of the University, mainly engaging himself in readings on political thought and theory, and taking lectures from famous intellectuals of the time, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, and Qian Xuantong. It was here, during a tense, sometimes dangerous time in the City, that Mao was introduced to the idea's of Communism through works of Marx and Lenin. The Chinese Nation was stirred throughout
