Early Gates

Finally setting out to see some actual sites, I started with probably the most famous image of Beijing -- the Gate of Heavenly Peace, formerly one of the many gates along the entrance to the Imperial City, and now bearing the image of Mao.

South from there, through Tiananmen Square, is the Mausoleum of Mao Tse-tung, where his embalmed body is laid out a la Lenin in Moscow.


The outside is adorned with some almost-comically communist statues.

South of the mausoleum are some of the outermost gates of the Imperial City. Visitors to the city would have come through this pair of gates, traveled the length of Tiananmen Square, and entered the city through the Gate of Heavenly Peace. The first is the archery tower, at the southern-most approach.

Past the archery tower, you encounter the front gate, also known as Zhenyangmen or Qianmen.

(Note the detailed painting on the eaves of the roof.)

Qıanmen, with its arrow tower, was destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion and rebuilt starting in 1906. Even though the complete approach to the city, with all of the gates, no longer exists, these gates give an indication of scale and style of the time.
Actually, I came across this historical photo of what the gate looked like pre-demolition. They did a decent job restoring it to its original structure.
A little farther afield, I found the new National Centre for the Performing Arts, completed in 2007. Unfortunately, you can't see the whole thing because I don't have a wide enough lens.