Tiananmen Square destroyed, the gate. Tiananmen Square was designed and built in 1651, and has since been enlarged by four times its original size in the 1950s. Near the centre of the square stood the "Great Ming Gate", the southern gate to the Imperial City, renamed "Great Qing Gate" during the Qing dynasty, and "Gate of China" during the Republican era. Unlike the other gates in Beijing, such as the Tiananmen and the Zhengyangmen, this was a purely ceremonial gateway, with three arches but no ramparts, similar in style to the ceremonial gateways found in the Ming tombs. This gate had a
Defend Tiananmen Square Headquarters Ling led the formation of crowd in the annunciation of the following oath on the Tiananmen Square: "I swear I will protect the republic and Tiananmen Square with my young life. Heads can roll, blood can flow, but the people's Square can never be lost! We are willing to fight to the last person." According to Chai Ling's book "", and Wu Renhua's book Major Events, Tiananmen 1989 at least one hundred thousand people gathered in the Square when Chai Ling took the oath. And some people joined them after Wang Dan announced the formation of the Defend Tiananmen Square