On September 9, 1959, the just completed Great Hall of the People shone brightly outside the , the sun was shining brightly and cloudless. The people's leader Mao Zedong came to the construction site of the Great Hall of the People with Qi Yanming , Wan Li and others. The main work of the Great Hall has been completed, and only some details need to be improved.
Walking into the grand and atmospheric Great Hall of Ten Thousand People, Mao Zedong's mood instantly became excited. He shook hands with the workers present one by one and said hello to everyone excitedly.
Looking up, Mao Zedong was immediately shocked by the scene in front of him, pointed to the ceiling and asked excitedly, "Whose idea is this?"
What exactly is there on the ceiling? What kind of touching story can make Mao Zedong so excited, and what kind of touching story is hidden behind the Great Hall of the People?
picture|Mao Zedong
1. The auditorium of ten thousand people is on the ground
In fact, as early as 15 years ago, in the simple cave in Yan'an , Mao Zedong had a dream of building a "Great Hall of the People"...
In the early spring of 1945, Yangjialing, Yan'an was crowded and lively. The Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China is about to be held. In order to allow all the representatives attending the meeting to sit together, the Party Central Committee decided to build a large auditorium in Yangjialing . This arduous task was handed over to Yang Zuocai, a famous architect in my country.
Before this, Yang Zuocai had designed many famous buildings for our party, such as the General Office of the Central Committee, the Wangjiaping Military Commission Auditorium, etc.
However, the task this time is much more difficult than before. Yangjialing has been under the blockade of the Kuomintang for a long time. The Japanese and puppet troops often burned, killed and looted our party’s bases. There were only a dozen families left in the huge village. The people couldn’t even have enough food, let alone build houses.
Under such arduous conditions, Yang Zuocai still led the soldiers to overcome difficulties and completed a standardized auditorium as scheduled.
On April 23, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Yangjialing. 755 Chinese Communist Party cadres from all over the country gathered in the Yangjialing Central Auditorium, and everyone walked into the newly completed venue with novel eyes.
Zhu De said to everyone excitedly: "Comrades, we finally have our own auditorium !"
Everyone was bustling in the dim auditorium. The simple long wooden chairs were full of people. If they really couldn't sit down, they stood aside. There were a few kerosene lamps around the room for lighting. The dark lights could not see the handwriting on the notebook at all. Everyone bent their waists and put their eyes close to the notebook to take notes.
After the meeting, Mao Zedong walked onto the podium and said with great emotion: "Comrades! Our conditions are very simple now. After the victory of the revolution, we must build an
Later, the Party Central Committee held another meeting in the Xibaipo small auditorium. Although the conditions were much better than Yangjialing, it was still very simple. Mao Zedong's desire to build a 10,000 auditorium was even stronger.
pic | Yangjialing Central Auditorium
1949, the revolution finally won victory, but the country has just been established, and all walks of life are in a mess, and time, money and talents are urgently needed to restore vitality. The plan for the "Ten Thousand People Auditorium" was temporarily shelved. It was not until the first five-year plan of our country was completed that Mao Zedong put the renovation work on the agenda. The most important one was to build a complete, modern and standardized auditorium for ten thousand people!
In the summer of 1958, the summer office of the CPC Central Committee in Beidaihe was full of people. The Party Central Committee had just held a regular meeting. At the meeting, Mao Zedong proposed that a batch of classic buildings with commemorative significance in Beijing will be built in one year, and congratulated the upcoming 10th anniversary celebration of the founding of New China. The order of
was issued at once, and Beijing immediately held a meeting. Deputy Mayor Wan Li asked that ten public buildings such as the auditorium of 10,000 people, the Revolutionary Museum, History Museum, and the Military Museum be built before October 1, 1959.
In addition, it is also necessary to expand Tiananmen Square , build stadiums, department stores, Chang'an Hotel, etc. The construction project area is more than 700,000 square meters, and the total investment is conservatively estimated to be as high as 300 million.
These public buildings that seem to have little to do with people's lives are extremely important for the entire country and are the most important part of the upcoming 10th anniversary celebration. Among them, the construction of the "Ten Thousand People Auditorium" is the most important.
From the day of the meeting, there are only less than 400 days left before the 10th anniversary celebration. It is difficult to build a grand building with extremely high artistic level and engineering quality in such a short time.
The technology and experience far exceed our Americans. It took seven years to build the United Nations Headquarters Building in New York. The world-renowned Sydney Opera House took 14 years to complete. Now we have to build the "Top Ten Buildings" at the same time in more than 400 days, including the auditorium that can represent a country.
China has never tried, experienced, or even heard or learned such a difficult and arduous construction project. In one sentence, it is used to describe it - the auditorium of ten thousand people is starting from the ground, and the existing domestic architectural scholars start completely from scratch, everything starts from scratch.
"Some people don't believe that we can build a modern country. They always think that this is not possible in China, and that is not possible! We must strive to speak with actions and facts!" Wanli said excitedly at the mobilization meeting.
Where is Wanli giving an excited speech, while on the other hand, the office of Zhao Pengfei, director of the Beijing Municipal Construction Committee, was in chaos. The staff under his hands complained. Zhao Pengfei frowned and kept flipping the planning documents issued by the central government on the top ten buildings.
"Director Zhao, Professor Liang Sicheng has arrived in Beijing!"
"What? Liang Sicheng is here..."
Picture|Liang Sicheng
Zhao Pengfei immediately put down the file and went to the hotel to meet Liang Sicheng.
There are more than 30 national treasure-level architects including Zhang Kaiji , Wu Liangyong , Yang Tingbao , etc. With professional talents joining, Zhao Pengfei's brows finally stretched a little.
In addition to these 30 top architects, the Beijing Municipal Committee also invited design experts from Shanghai, Hubei and Guangdong provinces to quickly arrive in Beijing to discuss the design of a 10,000-person hall with distinctive Chinese characteristics.
At that time, the whole country was in the stage of large-scale construction, and all provinces and cities had their own construction tasks. At this critical moment, many people were unwilling to go. In order to dispel everyone's doubts, the Beijing Municipal Committee specially noted the last note of the invitation letter: The task is completed, return immediately.
In just four days, construction and civil engineering experts from all over the country gathered in Beijing, and everyone worked together to make suggestions.
Soon, the design plan for the Great Hall of Ten Thousand People was released. After seven rounds of screening, more than 150 plans stood out. More than 1,000 designers have always been difficult to come up with a definite design plan because of inconsistent opinions.
There are many difficulties in the design stage alone, and the Beijing Municipal Committee is anxious, and Zhou Enlai is anxious.
pic | Zhou Enlai
On the eve of National Day, Zhou Enlai personally gave instructions: "All comrades should further emancipate their minds. They should not only listen to the old experts, but also mobilize young comrades to actively participate in the design of various projects."
With Zhou Enlai's help, the design plan quickly took shape. Among the many plans, there is a plan that looks "most unreliable", but it won the favor of everyone.
Originally, the central government required the area to be limited to 70,000 square meters, but there must be a large auditorium with a capacity of 10,000 people, a banquet hall with a capacity of 5,000 people, and an office building of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
After seeing these requests, Zhao Pengfei shook his head in anger. This is simply "making a temple in a snail shell". It is obviously unrealistic to have such a narrow space fortress, and it still seems to have the "demeanor of a great power"!
At this moment, Zhao Dongri, a young designer from the Beijing Municipal Planning Bureau, led his colleagues to risk submitting a design plan covering an area of 171,800 square meters, which is more than twice the original planned area.After the
plan was submitted, everyone's hearts were in their throats. If this plan was not passed, then the efforts during this period would be in vain and everything would have to start over. Time was already very tight and could not be wasted every minute or second.
At that time, the largest building independently built in my country was Beijing Exhibition Hall was only 50,000 square meters. The building with more than 70,000 square meters was a new record. Now it has exceeded more than 100,000 square meters, which is larger than the entire Forbidden City. Even if the plan is passed, it is almost impossible to complete the project as scheduled.
The leaders of the Party Central Committee did not dare to make a rash decision on such a major matter. On October 14, Zhou Enlai rushed back to Beijing in a hurry. Wan Li and Liang Sicheng and others had been waiting for a long time in West Flower Hall .
As soon as the two sides met, Wanli took out the plan designed by Zhao Dongri and others. Zhou Enlai looked and compared it repeatedly, asked the opinions of all the experts present, and finally slapped the table and said, "Just use this! Leave the specific design of the project to the Municipal Construction Institute!"
After saying this, Zhou Enlai didn't even have time to drink a sip of water, so he took the staff to Juxiang Bookstore to report the situation.
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Zhao Pengfei asked anxiously, "Lao Wan, you talk! What's the matter!"
Wanli turned around calmly, looked at the earnest gazes of everyone, and said happily, "It's passed!"
Zhao Dongri and others jumped up instantly, and the young comrades present hugged each other excitedly and cheered. Liang Sicheng, Wu Liangyong and others also breathed a sigh of relief and celebrated happily.
Zhou Enlai did not "calculate" the area that exceeded the standard in the plan, but was attracted by the magnificent and bold design in the plan. In addition, Zhao Dongri designed a spacious central hall in his plan, which can be used as a rest hall normally, and commemorative activities can be held at critical moments, achieving "learning from one example and applying it to others". The design plan for
was finally finalized. Just when everyone was relieved, everyone realized that it was difficult to achieve this grand plan.
pic | Wanli (middle)
2. The whole country mobilized
There is a saying that Beijingers are ordinary people living under the roots of the imperial city. The Great Hall of the People is located on the west side of Tiananmen Square. The demolition in this golden area where every inch of land is worth a lot of money, the investment is extremely huge.
Many ordinary people have lived here for generations, and have been proud of living under the imperial city for generations. However, the construction of the Great Hall of the People requires the relocation of 67 government agencies and 680 private houses, and a total of nearly 4,000 houses.
I thought the demolition process would last for a long time, but I didn’t expect that the demolition work that was originally planned for half a year was completed in just one month.
cannot do without the help of Beijing citizens. When the demolition order was issued, citizens living on the west side of Tiananmen Square immediately began to look for houses in , Sanlitun and Huqiaofang, and truly achieved "sacrificing their small family for everyone."
Thanks to the selfless dedication of the older generation of Beijing people, we can see today's beautiful and magnificent capital Beijing. The relocation work of
began quickly. It was during the National Day period, and the Municipal Construction Committee was not in a hurry to build the construction, but made sufficient preparations. As soon as the activity was over, they immediately started to do it!
Soon, the demolition work was completed, but the design plan of the Great Hall of Ten Thousand People is still in the prototype stage, which means that the frame outside has been designed, but there is still no accurate plan for every brick and tile inside.
Time waits for no one, construction work must start immediately now!
At dawn on October 28, the crackling sound of firecrackers woke up the sleeping Beijing. More than 4,000 employees built in Beijing were ready to go in Tiananmen Square. As soon as the firecrackers stopped, they immediately shoveled up the first shovel of soil from the Great Hall of the People. After experiencing many hardships, the magnificent Great Hall of 10,000 finally started construction!
In order to build this conference hall, the whole country mobilized together to make strong efforts and have ideas.
At one time, letters from all over the country poured into Zhou Enlai's office like snowflakes. Many of the opinions were accusing the Great Hall of the People of "too big". Many people believed that only the theocracy would build such huge buildings that were mysterious and fool the people.
Zhou Enlai anxiously stood up and explained: " St. Peter's Church is a product of the theocracy. The purpose of construction is to make the people feel that God is great and that the people are small. We are different. The people are the masters of the country. Although the space and area of the Great Hall have been expanded, the appearance must be approachable and not be mysterious. Now we only have one sentence for the construction of the Great Hall - 10,000 people hold meetings and 5,000 people have meals for eight months!"
Zhou Enlai's words successfully calmed down rumors, and the construction of the Great Hall of Ten Thousand People has been on track.
drawings | There are no drawings on the construction site of the Great Hall of the People, so you can design while covering it. Experts supervise the progress of the project and draw drawings, and do their best. Starting from October 28, the project progress that must be completed is stipulated every day. According to this plan, the Great Hall of 10,000 people will be successfully launched before the 10th anniversary celebration.
At that time, our country was a planned economy, and construction materials and machinery and equipment were allocated by the state. 10 construction sites in Beijing started construction at the same time, requiring a huge number of construction machinery, and steel, copper plate and other building materials were also in short supply.
After 18 provinces and cities across the country knew about the difficulties in Beijing, they sent more than 7,000 outstanding construction workers from the local area, including the People's Liberation Army, government officials, public security forces, and even students signed up to join the volunteer army to support Beijing.
For a moment, Beijing was very lively.
General Yang Yong brought 160 volunteer army return representatives, a volunteer army composed of students also came, and a representative brigade of more than 2,000 women comrades also came. Even some comrades passing by Beijing had to take advantage of the short time to wait for the car to go to Tiananmen Square to contribute their efforts.
This is the real "national mobilization". Such a grand occasion has rarely appeared since the May Fourth Movement in 1919. I didn't expect that no matter how long it took, the passionate patriotic heart of the Chinese people would always exist!
According to statistics, there are as many as 300,000 laborers participating in the construction of the Great Hall of 10,000. 23 provinces have actively made efforts to produce a large number of finished equipment and materials for the Great Hall of 10,000.
On March 11, 1959, the project of the Great Hall of Ten Thousand People entered the countdown. After meeting discussion, the final completion date was set on August 15, 1959.
At this time, the Great Hall of Ten Thousand People has entered the decoration stage. With the progress of the decoration, a huge problem has surfaced, that is, how can such a huge space not appear to be too hollow and depressing?
The Municipal Construction Committee has consulted many experts and scholars. Everyone believes that it is almost impossible to do this in a huge space with a depth of 60 meters from east to west, 76 meters from north to south, 33 meters high, and a dome without columns.
No matter how you design it, people will appear small and depressed when standing inside.
But the basic concept of designing the Great Hall of Ten Thousand People was to be approachable and make everyone who comes here happy.
In desperation, the Municipal Construction Committee could only throw this problem to Zhou Enlai. Zhou Enlai visited the construction site for inspection and saw the auditorium with his own eyes. The moment Zhou Enlai saw a flash of inspiration in his mind, and the sentence " The setting sun and the lone wild goose fly together, the autumn water and the sky are the same color" suddenly poured into his mind.
Zhou Enlai said confidently: "People will not feel how high the sky is when standing on the ground, and they will not feel how big the sea is when standing on the beach. We cannot install lights in the traditional way. The dome can be designed according to the concept of "water and sky are the same color", so it will be much more natural."
Zhou Enlai said this, and the designer immediately got inspiration.
finally designed a round red five-pointed star lamp decorated in the center of the dome, surrounded by three layers of water wave-type dark light troughs, plus 500 star lamps. In this way, a magnificent and romantic "starry sky top" is formed!
In addition, the designer also reserved many small holes on the dome. These small holes have a good sound absorption effect. No matter how spacious the space is, it will not form an echo, and can also promote the spread of sound.
On August 31, 1959, the 304-day construction project of the Great Hall of the People finally came to a successful conclusion.
Picture | Construction site of the Great Hall of the People
At the National Day project completion commendation meeting, Zhou Enlai personally stood at the door to welcome every worker and shook hands cordially with every representative. He said to everyone excitedly: "We can hold a meeting here today, which means we have won! We have won!" As soon as
As soon as he finished speaking, thunderous applause immediately sounded in the venue. Everyone was moved to tears and witnessed this exciting moment together!
3. Serving the people is called the Great Hall of the People
On September 9, 1959, accompanied by Wanli, Qi Yanming and others, Mao Zedong slowly stepped into the newly completed Great Hall of the Ten Thousand People. The interior and exterior of the auditorium were magnificent and solemn, and Mao Zedong kept nodding and complimenting.
When Mao Zedong came, the workers involved in the construction rushed forward and surrounded the chairman among the crowd. Everyone excitedly greeted the chairman.
Mao Zedong responded loudly: "Thank you for your hard work, thank you for your hard work!"
Surrounded by everyone, Mao Zedong walked into the Great Hall, and an extremely broad and grand space came into view in an instant.
Seeing the scene in front of him, Mao Zedong's emotions immediately became excited. He took out a cigarette, lit it tremblingly, his eyes staring straight at the ceiling, and asked excitedly, "Whose idea is this?"
Wanli looked up and saw that Mao Zedong asked about the "Starry Sky Top" that Zhou Enlai suggested to design, and immediately replied with a smile: "Chairman, this is Premier Zhou's suggestion, the designer designed it from this."
"Haha, it's Enlai, this design is very good! 'The setting sun and the lone wild goose fly together, the autumn water grows together and the sky is the same color'!"
Unexpectedly, Mao Zedong expressed Zhou Enlai's idea at that time in one sentence. The two fought side by side for decades, and knew each other very well. Mao Zedong suddenly understood Zhou Enlai's intention.
These 500 lamps represent the unity of the people of all ethnic groups in the country, the three layers of water waves symbolize the wave of revolution, and the five-pointed star in the middle represents the Communist Party. Only with the support of the people can the Communist Party lead the country to a further future.
Picture| "Starry Sky Top" that excited Mao Zedong
After visiting the conference hall, Mao Zedong came to the banquet hall again. Here he saw the Chinese painting of " So beautiful ", and showed a satisfied smile. He turned to Wanli and said, "You are really traveling thousands of miles a day. The construction progress has been completed so quickly. The Forbidden City was built for 10 years!"
00 miles did not dare to take credit, and quickly said, "Chairman, this is not my credit, thanks to the tens of thousands of workers' work day and night and the support and help of provinces and cities across the country!" Qi Yanming, who was next to
, continued, "Chairman, this conference hall is the chairman, thanks to the efforts of tens of thousands of workers day and night and the support and help of provinces and cities across the country!" Qi Yanming, who was next to
, continued, "Chairman, this conference hall is the chairman, thanks to the support and help of tens of thousands of workers throughout the day and night and the support and help of provinces and cities across the country!"
Qi Yanming, who was next to
, continued, "Chairman, this conference hall is the chairman. There has never been a name. Premier Zhou said that the leader of a country must be named in person. "
Mao Zedong pondered for a moment and asked, "What do ordinary workers call this place?"
"Sometimes it is called the Great Hall Construction Site, and some are called the People's Palace."
Mao Zedong shook his head and said, "It's a bit feudal. Let's do it. Since it is built by the people and serves the people, it's called the Great Hall of the People!" "
"The Great Hall of the People?" Qi Yanming stumbled carefully, and then said to the staff behind him with an excited expression: "The Great Hall of the People will be called the Great Hall of the People from now on!" After hearing this, the staff around him clapped and applauded. This name really hit everyone's heart.
pic | Great Hall of the People
From then on, the Great Hall of the People took on the responsibility of the times and became an important place for my country's political and diplomatic activities, witnessed countless major historical moments, and accompanied New China through a brilliant historical process!
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