Monument to People's Heroes (人民英雄纪念碑)

The Monument to the People's Heroes stands in the center of Tiananmen Square, north of the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao. Four hundred and sixty three meters south from Tiananmen, and four hundred and forty meters north from Zhengyangmen, it coincides with the south-north center axis. The Monument to the People's Heroes, together with Tiananmen and Zhengyangmen form a harmonious and consistent building complex.

On September 30 of 1949, the first China People's Political Consultant Conference brought up the idea of building a monument in Beijing, capital of China, o commemorate the people's heroes in modern Chinese history. At 6 p.m. of the same day, the ground-breaking ceremony was held, in which delegates led by Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China from 1943 and the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from 1945 to 1976, broke ground, laying the cornerstone of the monument. The construction of the monument was started on August 1, 1952 and completed on April 22, 1958. On May 1 of 1958, the inauguration ceremony was held. In 1961, it was designated as one of China's foremost protected relics..

The Monument to the People's Heroes is a square building, covering an area of 3,000 square meters. It is composed of three parts; the body, the Buddhist-style base, and the pedestal, reaching as tall as 37.94m. The body of the monument is made up of 413 pieces of granite 32 layers deep. In the center of the north side of the monument, a single complete piece of stone, 14.7m long, 2.9m wide and 1m thick, is inscribed with large, glazed words by Mao Zedong which read: "Eternal Glory to the People's Heroes." The south side of the monument is composed of 7 pieces of stone with a draught of an epigraph by Mao Zedong and inscribed by Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People's Republic of China who served from October 1949 until his death in January 1976. The east and west sides of the monument are carved with patterns of five-pointed stars, pine trees and flags.