Tiananmen by Night, Beijing

Besides visiting TIananmen Square and Forbidden City during the day, you must do a nightime visit as well. A totally different feel.
I suggest starting from Donghuanmen Yeshi and walk towards the Forbidden City. You will come across The Courtyard, a restaurant.
You will walk along the moat of the Forbidden City. I visited in winter and the moat was frozen adding to the peaceful, quiet atmosphere. No crowds, in fact no one except a man walking his dog and some trishaw parked at the roadside, waiting for customers.
The walls of the Forbidden City are so high that i wonder without modern equipment, how would one be able to attack guards at the top.
You will find that there is only 1 road to follow into the FCity, along the moat and you wouldn't go wrong. It's either continue straight ahead or turn back the way you came from. You will eventually arrive at Wumen (where tickets are purchased to enter the Forbidden City). Of course all will be shut and you cannot exit via the passage that leads out to Tiananmen and Chang'an jie. Guards patrol this passage and is sealed off from the public.
The only way is to follow the exit parallel to the door you just came thru. This leads you thru an exact route on the other side of the Forbidden City. Almost all ancient buildings in China seemed to be built symetrical left and right. Arriving at the first street that allows you to choose left or right, turn left and eventually you will end up at Chang'an Jie and Tiananmen Square across.
The Forbidden City is absolutely stunning at nite with the bright lights lit and also not as much people as in the day. The cold and fog/haze adds to its beauty, giving a mystical feel. Well, at least to me it did.

Dress Code: No dress code!

The government buildings are a tourist attraction to many chinese.

That night the square was relatively well visited, although the temperature was about zero.

It is amazing to walk on there and remember what already happened on that square.

Enjoy the view!

This is a well-konwn tea house found in 1988 .What makes this place different from those "new tea house " are their very Chinese decolation, Beijing imperial court snack .Moreover, they have daily live performance from 19: 00-21:00 . The show includes Beijing opera/ folk dance /acrobticas ....It is a tourist place , but it has what the foreigners like to see .The price per person ranging from RMB40 to 130 which I think is very reasonable.

Reservation is preferred

I heard that Tian'anmen square is not open after certain time at night. However, the night before National Day, people are allowed to get in. I was there one National Day's Eve. There were so crazily many people already when I got there at 3.50am. Also a lot of journalists. Everybody was going to see the raise of the flag in early morning. And interestingly, I noticed there were a lot of soilders there too. They stood still in a line for hours. I guessed they were trying to seperate people from moving around too much by standing like a wall.

On the national coat of arms of the People's Republic of China, theTian'anmen Gate is represented as the symbol of the revolutionary new China. Tian'anmen Gate is located north of Tian'anmen Square and leads to the Forbidden City. It was built as early as 1417 and mentioned as the main gate of the former Imperial Palace, Chengtian Men. The gate is surrounded by a ring-moat,the Golden Water Spring,which was arranged to guard the Imperial Palace.The 33.7-metre-high Tian'anmen Gate was used by the emperor for grand ceremonies, for the lauching of military expeditions under his personal command, and for his royal wedding. Imperial edicts were issued from the gatertower.In front of the entire complex stand two ornamental columns with carved decorations on the white marble.They are symbols of heavenly peace and the emperor's authority.
Tian'anmen Square was originally designed in 1651;it was cemented and quadrupled in size in 1958.Now it covers an area of 40.5 hectares and can hold up to one million people;thus,it is one of the largest public square in the world.It is surrounded by several impressive structures. The oldest of these is the Tian'anmen Gate to the north. To the east are the Museums of Chinese History and Revolutionary,to the west the Great Hall of the People and to the south the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and the Qianmen Gate.In the middle of the square is the Monument of the People's Heroes.Tian'anmen Square has often been the scene of big demonstrations,mass meetings, parades and celebrations since it was built.

After visiting the main touristic places during the day, reserve some time for Tiananmen at night.

The lights of the government buildings as well as of the Mao Mausoleum are kind of inspiring...

This is the only pic of Tien An Men square I have.

This is blurry, I know, but it is not easy to make good pics from a moving car.