The China Millennium Monument

All over the world, celebrations and festivities to usher in Year 2000 make up one of the grandest spectacles at the end of the century, as mankind strides towards the new century and millennium.

New opportunities, challenges, and hopes are emerging over the horizon of China of the 21st century. The Chinese nation, with its splendid civilization of 5000 years, is on the threshold of an epoch of great renewal, as a future of yet greater splendour is arising in the East of the world.

At the turn of the century and millennium, the China Millennium Monument. with its oriental cultural overtones and contemporary architectural art, will promote the national spirit by embodying an original style, displaying a modern aestheticism, and expressing hopes of the future.

The China Millennium Monument, as China' s symbolic and commemorative building to welcome the Year 2000, is a gift for the world of the 21st century from the Chinese people, forever standing in China' s capital Beiling.

The China Millennium Monument stands along a north-south axis between the Military Museum and the Central Television Complex, with the scenic Yuyuantan Park to the north and the West Beijing Railway Terminus to the south, occupying an area of 4.5 hectares and a total floor space of about 42,000 square metres.

The Monument is a grand structure ingeniously combining the spirit of traditional Chinese culture with modern architectural art, and integrating architecture, landscaping, sculpture, mural painting, and various other art forms. It will not only be an eternal memory of the turn of the millennium, but also serve as a centre for cultural, artistic, and scientific exhibitions both at home and abroad, as well as an inspiration in patriotism.

Inside the southern entrance to the Monument is the Plaza of Holy Fire, one metre below ground and 960 square metres in area, standing for China' s vast territory of 9,600,000 square kilometres. With the gentle centripetal rise of the ground suggesting the rise of the Chinese nation, the Holy Fire of China is located right in the middle of the Plaza. The fire originated at the site of Peking man at Zhoukoudian, Beijing, and is fed on natural gas. The everburning flames, rising some 45 centimetres high, are a token of the unceasing creativity of the Chinese civilization.

Along both the eastern and western side of the plaza, there is a steady current of water cascading down the steps, reminding the visitor of the mother rivers of the Chinese nation: the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers.