Appreciate New China's history as nation's 70th anniversary approaches

Walking up to the balcony around its base, I noticed schoolchildren on ceremonial duty. On either side of the square were two of the great buildings erected for China's 10th anniversary celebrations in 1959. To the west is the Great Hall of the People, venue for the National People's Congress, and on the eastern side, what today is the world's third-most visited museum, the National Museum of China. The enormity of such buildings, their sheer size while realizing how quickly they were constructed, held me in awe.

Between the obelisk and the museum, a seemingly endless queue snaked around the square, leading to the north entrance of the 1976 Mao Zedong Mausoleum. I was amazed at how people would wait patiently in line under that very hot sun for maybe an hour or even longer. Later I would join them passing through its silent, indeed somber interior. Outside are several interesting sculptures depicting both civilians and servicemen created in an art style particularly common in China during the 1950's and 60's and known as 'socialist realism'.