Visits
Mao Zedong's surviving family members always visit the mausoleum annually on Mao's birthday and the day he died. According to one of Mao's granddaughters, Kong Dongmei (孔东梅), Mao's third wife He Zizhen was initially banned from visiting the mausoleum, for reasons never explained by the Chinese government. After more than a year of repeated appeals and nearly two million people had already visited the mausoleum, she was finally allowed a single secret visit with heavy restrictions: she was not allowed to cry or make any noise inside and not talk to the press about the visit. She was allowed to be photographed with her ex-husband's statue in the mausoleum by Lu Xiangyou (吕相友), Mao's personal photographer since the late 1950s.
Dr. Xu Jing (徐静), one of the designers involved in the mausoleum's construction, later wrote about the process in The Place Where A Great Man Rests as well as listing the visits of important people to the mausoleum. However, his own visit on September 8, 1979 was barred from the book, by order of the Chinese government, again for reasons never explained.
Read more about this topic: Mausoleum Of Mao Zedong
Famous quotes containing the word visits:
“The soul is no traveler; the wise man stays at home, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still and shall make men sensible by the expression of his countenance that he goes, the missionary of wisdom and virtue, and visits cities and men like a sovereign and not like an interloper or a valet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It so happened that, a few weeks later, “Old Ernie” [Ernest Hemingway] himself was using my room in New York as a hide-out from literary columnists and reporters during one of his rare stopover visits between Africa and Key West. On such all-too-rare occasions he lends an air of virility to my dainty apartment which I miss sorely after he has gone and all the furniture has been repaired.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“I suggested a doubt, that if I were to reside in London, the exquisite zest with which I relished it in occasional visits might go off, and I might grow tired of it. JOHNSON. “ ... No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.””
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)