Tiananmen Square and The Great Wall of China

• published: 21 Jan 2015
• views: 40

Like what we do? Please Donate: http://tinyurl.com/donate-to-the-camps After 3 days of torrential downpour in Beijing, our last full day was a beautiful one and the perfect time to hit up Tiananmen Square and the Badaling section of The Great Wall! As you'll see, walking into one of the world's largest open square isn't just a quick walk and you're there. We were pushed and shoved for a good 30 minutes before we made it there. Luckily for us, we got good at the China way of lining up which is every person for themselves (throw dem bows!) At first, this was total culture shock but surprisingly by the end of our time in China we got used to it and just went with the flow. It's amazing what you can get used to. As soon as we crossed the street, the reality of where we were started to sink in. Tiananmen square is known by many for the role it played as the focal point of the 1989 student led pro democracy movement. The protests were sparked by the sudden death of the former Communist party general secretary and liberal reformer Hu Yaobang, after university students began to gather in the square en masse. The protesting lasted for 7 weeks throughout Beijing until a military crackdown on the protests was ordered by the top level leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Shockingly, things came to a bloody conclusion when the military began firing on unarmed civilians on the night on June 3. The violence continued for another day as the PLA continued clearing protesters from in, and around the Square. The following day on June 5th, the iconography of the Tiananmen square massacre was solidified when a picture of of a lone man blocking a column of tanks leaving the sqaure was taken. While we were in the square, cameras and armed guards watched our every move... this was made all the more chilling considering that the Chinese government continues to go to great lengths to censor this historical event from public memory. To this day Google, Youtube, twitter, facebook, etc. are all still BLOCKED... so if you would like to know more about this atrocity, we encourage you to exercise your freedom to information and get to Googling. We weren't able to give this subject it's due justice with this video, and the memory of the Tiananman square massacre needs to live on. The wall was the perfect way to end the day and it was made all the better knowing we did it independently and saved ourselves a small fortune. There are dozens of tours, but do your homework and you can easily tackle this wonder all by yourself and take your time. At the end of the day, we spent only $22 - that's admission, transportation, and really expensive water and ice cream bought at the wall. ☑SUBSCRIBE ☑LIKE ☑SHARE ☐GET ON PLANE ________________________________________­______ FOLLOW THE BEARD! ✩ Blog/Website - http://www.becausewecamp.com ✩ Instagram - http://instagram.com/becausewecamp ✩ FaceBook - https://www.facebook.com/becausewecamp ________________________________________­______ MUSIC ♪ 'Vinyls,Samplers and Coffee' by Kill Emil Bandcamp: http://killemil.bandcamp.com 'China Loading Theme' featured in Battlefield 2 ________________________________________­______ Thank you for watching: Tiananmen Square and The Great Wall of China