Monument to the People's Heroes, Granite obelisk in Tiananmen Square, China

This structure rises at the center of Tiananmen Square. The monument rests on a two-tier platform and supports a narrow spire of pale granite.

The First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference resolved on September 30, 1949, to build the monument, and that afternoon Mao Zedong and the delegates laid its foundation stone in Tiananmen Square. Construction ran from August 1, 1952, to April 1958, and the monument was unveiled on May 1, 1958. It was listed as a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 1961.

Ten marble panels show scenes from different uprisings and political events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Walking around the base reveals episodes that accompanied the founding of modern China.

Access requires online registration and passport presentation at the square entrance. Subway line 1 reaches Tiananmen East or West stations a few minutes on foot.

The north face bears Mao Zedong's eight gilded characters "Eternal glory to the people's heroes", carved into a single 103-ton block of granite from Fushan in Qingdao. The south face holds a 150-character text drafted by Mao and written out by Zhou Enlai. In 1971 the gilding was replaced with red fibreglass characters, and the original gilding was restored before National Day 1980.