Below are a few of the street scenes I observed during my last visit to Beijing.

The Monument to the Peoples Heroes in Tiananmen Square. It was created to recognise those who gave their lives to change China’s political and social environment.  It was built during the last years of the 1950s.  It is enormous and sits in the middle of the square with Mao Zedong’s mausoleum to the south, Tiananmen Gate to the north and an enormous museum and the People’s Hall on each side.  It is cordoned off so that people are not allowed to get too close to it.

Tiananmen Gate and the national flag flying in a breeze.  There is a ceremony to erect and remove it each day.  I was there at the time of  the evening removal once but there were too many tourists to engage my interest.  Tiananamen Square is a must see for domestic tourists and they can be seen everywhere posing for photos. It is 800 metres long and I walked it twice during the weekend along with the walking to reach there and around the Forbidden City.

I posted this photo a couple of weeks ago.  It is in a street adjacent to the Forbidden City.  On Saturday I bought a book which showed this photo, minus the air conditioner, and talked about its past.  It was a temple, known as the Temple of Prosperity and became a refuge for many eunuchs  after they left the Forbidden City.  It had quiet a past being much more than a temple but also like a hotel for many eunuchs and their families.    According to the book some eunuchs did have families including wife and children.  Many also  adopted a child to  continue their name.

This is a cute little street sweeper parked in Dashalan St.  It is the first motorised one I’ve seen anywhere but Xingtai which has a few along with an army of human sweepers.

This is the Yongding Gate and I took it from a bus down south near the Temple of Heaven Park.  Another book I have started reading said that it was built in 2004.  There used to be a gate there in previous times but it along with most of the others was demolished during the 1950s and 1960s.  From memory it stands alone amidst a tangle of roadways.

A residential street and apartment block near the southern entrance to the Temple of Heaven Park. Some trees have lost their leaves while others are just starting to change colour.

An apartment block on the way to the railway.