The Mao Zedong Memorial Hall (Mao Zhuxi Jiniantang) was built in Tiananmen Square between 1976 and 1977. Chairman Mao was born on December 26, 1893, in Hunan Province. He passed away in Beijing on September 9, 1976, at the age of 83. (Interestingly, Mao was one of the first high-ranking officials to sign up for cremation, a procedure shunned by the population. So the construction of the mausoleum was against his final wishes.) The hail is 260 meters long from north to south, 220 meters wide from east to west and 33.6 meters high. It has five parts: the Courtyard, the Memorial Hall, the North Hall, the Viewing Hall and the South Hall.



In the Hall of Mourning (the Memorial Hall) at the heart of the mausoleum, lies Mao in his usual gray suit, draped with the red flag of the Communist Party, in a crystal casket. The rare phoebe nanmu wood of the doors and walls was transported from a peak on Hainan Island under the supervision of Zhou Enlai.