People's Republic of China
Left:From atop Tiananmen Gate, Mao Zedong, proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 and Beijing again became the capital of China. Right: Beijing middle school students attended the ceremony in Tiananmen Square. See also: History of the People's Republic of ChinaOn October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong stood atop the rostrum of Tiananmen Gate, proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China. The city's name was restored to Beijing, which again served as the capital of China. At the time, the city limits contained 707 km2 of territory and had just over 2.03 million residents. Over the next sixty years, the city would reach unprecedented size in both territory (expanding 23-fold) and population (growing ten-fold) as well as political stature and importance. As the political center of a highly-centralized government, Beijing and its residents bore witness to many of the political events and developments that shaped modern China.
Read more about this topic: History Of Beijing
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“For them it’s out-of-date and outmoded to perform miracles; teaching the people is too like hard work, interpreting the holy scriptures is for schoolmen and praying is a waste of time; to shed tears is weak and womanish, to be needy is degrading; to suffer defeat is a disgrace and hardly fitting for one who scarcely permits the greatest of kings to kiss the toes of his sacred feet; and finally, death is an unattractive prospect, and dying on a cross would be an ignominious end.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“People think they have taken quite an extraordinarily bold step forward when they have rid themselves of belief in hereditary monarchy and swear by the democratic republic. In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy.”
—Friedrich Engels (1820–1895)
“Consider the China pride and stagnant self-complacency of mankind. This generation inclines a little to congratulate itself on being the last of an illustrious line; and in Boston and London and Paris and Rome, thinking of its long descent, it speaks of its progress in art and science and literature with satisfaction.... It is the good Adam contemplating his own virtue.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)