Wulin Square

This guide to Wulin Square in Hangzhou opens in 1969, when factories and students gathered on this ground each morning to bow before a portrait of Chairman Mao inside what was then Red Sun Square. It follows the vast hall behind you, once called Mao Zedong Thought Victorious Forever, through its quiet renaming in 1977 and the square's own return to an older name a year later. You'll hear how, in 1984, city planners reshaped the same brick ground once more. Listen for what fills that new space each evening as the crowds gather.