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| Top Ten Chinese modern architecture |
| Essential
Architecture- Peking Monument to the People's Heroes |
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architect |
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location |
located to the north of Mao Zedong's mausoleum on the southern edge of Tiananmen Square |
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date |
August 1952 to May 1958 |
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style |
Socialist realism |
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construction |
The monument weighs over 10,000 metric tons and contains about 17,000 pieces of marble and granite from Qingdao, Shandong Province and Fangshan District outside Beijing. |
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type |
Monument |
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| Monument to the People's Heroes with the Great Hall of the People in the background. | |
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The Monument to the People's Heroes, Beijing, is a ten-story obelisk that
was erected as a national monument of the People's Republic of China.
The Monument built in memory of the martyrs who laid down their lives
for the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people during the 19th and
20th century. It was built in accordance with the resolution of the
First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference adopted on November 30, 1949. Sources differ on the height of the monument, with estimates ranging from 121 feet (36.88m) to 125 feet (38.1m). It covers an area of 32,000 square feet (3,000 square metres). On the pedestal of the tablet there are eight huge bas-relieves carved out of white marble covering the revolutionary episodes, which are depictions of Chinese struggle from the First Opium War in 1840 to the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. The relieves can be read in chronological order in a clockwise direction from the east: 1) Burning Opium in the Opium War in 1840. 2) The Jintian Village Uprising in Taiping Revolution in 1851. 3) Wuchang Uprising (1911 Revolution). 4) May 4th Movement in 1919. 5) May 30th Movement in 1925. 6) Nanchang Uprising in 1927. 7) War of Resistance Against Japan between 1931 and 1945. 8) Crossing the Yangtze River Campaign, or Successful Crossing of the Yangtze River in 1949. On the front of the monument there is an inscription in Mao Zedong's handwriting, which reads "Eternal glory to the people's heroes!" On the back of the monument, there is a message which was drafted by Mao Zedong and written by Zhou Enlai: "Eternal glory to the heroes of the people who laid down their lives in the people's war of liberation and the people's revolution in the past three years! Eternal glory to the heroes of the people who laid down their lives in the people's war of liberation and the people's revolution in the past thirty years! Eternal glory to the heroes of the people who from 1840 laid down their lives in the many struggles against domestic and foreign enemies and for national independence and the freedom and well-being of the people!" (Note: the "past three years" refers roughly to the Chinese Liberation War (1946-1949); the "past thirty years" refers roughly to the "revolutionary proper" of the Chinese Communist Party from its foundation in 1921 to the end of the revolution in 1949 against the invasion by Japan and the rule of the warlords and the Nationalist government; and "from 1840" refers to the general struggle of the chinese people against the various external and internal strife engulfing China from the beginning of the Opium Wars to the establishment of the People's Republic of China.) |
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links |
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| www.essential-architecture.com | |