Tiananmen Square, Beijing China

Tiananmen - The massacre, 20 years on



Please click on the link above to know more about Tiananmen Square massacre. The above images and video are courtesy of a file shared by the onlinecitizen.com which I felt I had the need to share it on my blog to help me understand what's the importance behind Tiananmen Square that made it one of the places of interest in China. I had finally seen the place during my trip to Beijing on June of this year. The place was actually a very huge open space which was large enough to accommodate an assembly of one million people.

Tiananmen Square has been the site of a number of political events and student protests. It is widely remembered for the protest of June 1989 which resulted in the massacre of Chinese protesters in the streets to the west of the square and adjacent areas. About a hundred thousand people mostly university students have gathered to join the demonstrations in support for democracy.

The tension among protesters had actually escalated after the death of Hu Yaobang, a reformist, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1980 to 1987. The government officials were unhappy with Hu's advocation for social and political reforms so he was forced out of office in January of 1987. He died of heart attack on April 15, 1989 but the government at first did not plan to give him a state funeral so it ended up in furious reactions from university students across Beijing. The students marched on Tiananmen Square calling out for the rehabilitation of Hu's reputation. A delegation of student petitioners who patiently waited to speak with someone for three days  at the Great Hall of the People on April 19 was unfortunately not received by the Government officials which eventually resulted to tremendous tensions from the protesters. It became chaotic then and the next thing happened was that the military repeatedly opened fire on the unarmed citizens. It was not known exactly how many people died but it was only learnt that bloodshed of few thousands people lay dead within that time.

Istana Open House

It's quite a long hike towards the Istana building from the entrance.

So I stopped and posed for a moment..:)

Along the way, I stumbled upon a Big Gun....

Then admired a nine-hole golf course...

Had seen the Istana Villa....

And, spotted the Istana building where the President receives and entertains states guests.

Making dreams a reality

I remembered a quotation from an early Greek literature that reads: "Hold on to your dreams, for if dreams should die, life is broken-winged bird that cannot fly." Indeed, the mind is capable of dreaming very profound things. If someone had a dream and holds fast to it, his mind will find a way to bring it to reality. The ability to dream is a beautiful human faculty which often leads to amazing results. Once it becomes focused on something, it can break limits and surpass expectations leaving no stone unturned to make dreams into reality.



We achieve because we dream. There are many successful people in this world who dreamt big and whose dreams changed their lives and also inspired others. Take for example, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, founders of Apple Computers and Microsoft respectively. Besides bringing fortune to themselves, they have also revolutionised technology, brought great convenience and progress to mankind.



But to dream and make those dreams into reality are not just by a wink of an eye. These people are of great character - strong and determined - which enabled them to face challenges of any sort. Like any human being, they failed many times. But, they didn't give up and instead they continued to dream and work hard to make their dreams come to reality. We should take them as inspirations in our every endeavour.



Though it is human nature to cry out in anguish at all life's failures, we will always see ourselves in a much better light if we take a look around us and see that the most successful people in the world are those who have learnt to dream and struggled to fulfil their dreams, often against odds.

The First Day of FOURTH Grade!

Unimaginable!!

My baby girl started Fourth Grade today.
She had to carry all her supplies to school with her this morning and that backpack probably weighed at least 15 pounds! We have always taken her supplies to "meet the teacher" in the past. But she has 4 different teachers this year.

It seems just yesterday she was starting Kindergarten!

Hot Stuff

C likes hot stuff. The last several times we've eaten at Mexican Food Restaurants he has wanted to dip his chips in the salsa. Then he started drinking it! He just picks his little dip cup up and guzzles it down! Tough little dude! His Grandaddy will be proud!

Summer Fun

It's that time again! Swimming lessons.

D has been taking lessons since she was four so this is her 6th summer of lessons.

C has been a really good boy to sit in his stroller and watch the big kids.

July 4th

The kids are still feeling a little puny, Daddy's got it now too - poor Daddy. Mommy is getting better but still not best.

Aunt D sent the kids some July 4th shirts (along with some other goodies) so I took some pix this morning after they finished feeding the rabbit.

I broke down and bought C some of the new Huggies diapers that look like blue jeans. They're really pretty cute, I think.

Edited: REVIEW OF HUGGIES BLUE JEAN DIAPERS

Yes, they're cute and C liked them. Thumbs down on absorbancy. We went through them really quick because we were changing lots of diapers. We're back to our regular old Luvs size 4. We love Luvs.

Here is C giving the baby a "kiss."

Here is Mommy trying to get a picture of the cute diaper.

This is what most pictures end up looking like when trying to get a picture of our little Taz! Thank goodness for digital cameras where we can take oodles of pictures in order to get ONE good one!

We're making homemade vanilla ice cream right now, the machine is sounding like it's almost ready!