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1989April – 4 June 1989 · Tiananmen Square, Beijing

Tiananmen Square protests and massacre

The Monument to the People's Heroes and the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square, Beijing
Photo: そらみみ. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Students and workers occupied Tiananmen Square for seven weeks, calling for political reform and an end to corruption. On the night of 3–4 June the army cleared the square and surrounding streets with live fire, killing hundreds and possibly thousands. The image of a man blocking a column of tanks was seen worldwide, but the events cannot be openly discussed in China.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Tiananmen SquareThe square itself, with security checks and no public marker of 1989.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Chang'an Avenue by the Beijing HotelAvenue where a lone man stopped the tank column.Map ↗

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