No visit to Beijing is complete without spending some time in Tiananmen Square. It is the symbolic center of China with a sordid past. Tiananmen Square is the world’s largest public square, though quite sterile in itself. Tiananmen Square is flanked by Zhengyang Gate to the south, the Forbidden City and Gate of Heavenly Peace to the north, and grand 1950s buildings, including the National Museum of China, to the east and west. The Monument to the People’s Heroes is at the very center of the square, and the Chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall is to the south of the monument.