The Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tiananmen) is one of Beijing’s best known landmarks - today, it is almost impossible to imagine the city without it. The iconic portrait of Mao Zedong that hands on the Gate is present in the minds of billions of people across the world. However, looking back a hundred years, the Tiananmen Gate did not possess such a distinctive status. It was just a small part of the enormous imperial palace complex. How, therefore, did the Gate become the most important piece of architecture in modern China? During this talk we will explore how the Tiananmen became what it is today. Through Beijing Postcards collection of historical photographs, we will show how Tiananmen detached itself from the imperial complex and went from being a mere gate to a Communist shrine.