One Important Point Decorating Beijing Tiananmen Square-Huabiao

If you are on your Beijing China tour, I would like to introduce you one dazzling decoration about this Tiananmen Square. It is called Huabiao also called Ornamental pillars. These ornamental pillars here in front of Tiananmen Square Gate are made of white marble. In Chinese, they are called Huabiao, and they are a common feature at most of Chinese ancient buildings. Beijing travel here, you would find a stone column resting on a round or octagonal base and being surrounded by a railing. Dragons are carved into the column and at the top a life-size stone animal keeps watch.

This kind of decoration will bring some fresh imaginations to your Beijing trip experience. According to legends, the first such pillars were used about 4,000 years ago when Yao and Shun were the country’ rulers. At that time, they were made of wood, not marble, and they weren’t just ornamental. They were landmarks used for travelling. Later, Yao and Shun found another use for the pillars: They were used as suggestion boxes of a sort. The common people could post comments and advice for their ruler on the poles. However, with the establishment of the feudal system, suggestions from the common people were replaced by carvings of dragons, a symbol of royal power.