Tian'anmen Square is one of the largest city squares in the world. It is situated in the heart of Beijing. Tian'anmen was built in 1417 and was the entrance gate to the Forbidden City.
Now the square stretches 880 meters from north to south and 500 meters from east to west. The total area is 440,000 square meters. That's about the size of 60 soccer fields, spacious enough to accommodate half a million people.
Covering over forty hectares, Tian'anmen Square must rank as the greatest public square on earth. It's a modern creation, in a city that traditionally had no squares, as classical Chinese town planning did not allow for places where crowds could gather.
Tian'anmen only came into being when imperial offices were cleared from either side of the great processional way that led south from the palace to Qianmen and the Temple of Heaven.
The ancient north–south axis of the city was thus destroyed and the broad east–west thoroughfare, Chang'an Jie, that now carries millions of cyclists every day past the front of the Forbidden City, had the walls across its path removed.
翻译:天安门广场是世界上最大的城市广场之一。它位于北京的中心。天安门建于1417年,是紫禁城的入口。
现在广场从北向南延伸880米,从东向西延伸500米。总面积为44万平方米。大约有60个足球场那么大,足够容纳50万人。
天安门广场占地40多公顷,一定是世界上最大的公共广场。这是一个现代的创造,在一个传统上没有广场的城市,因为中国传统的城市规划不允许人群聚集的地方。
天安门只是在从皇宫向南通往前门和天坛的大游行路线两边的皇宫被清理干净后才出现的。
这座城市古老的南北轴线就这样被摧毁了,如今每天载着数百万骑自行车的人经过紫禁城前部的宽阔的东西大道长安街被拆除了。