A heavy pall of pollution hangs over Tiananmen Square and from a distance the giant portrait of Mao Zedong above the entrance to the Forbidden City looks a little smudged. It is 8am and the temperature in central Beijing is already approaching 30C. But the heat and smog are no deterrent to the thousands of people waiting in hour-long queues to pay respects to the preserved body of the “great helmsman”. Since his death 40 years ago, Chairman Mao’s corpse — or, more likely, a wax replica — has been on display in a purpose-built mausoleum in the geographic and figurative heart of the Chinese capital. Well over 200 million people have visited.
站在重度霧霾籠罩的天安門廣場上遠遠望過去，天安門城樓上懸掛的巨幅毛澤東像有些灰濛濛的。剛到早上8點，北京市中心氣溫已接近30攝氏度。但高溫和霧霾並未妨礙數以千計的人們排一小時長隊等待瞻仰這位「偉大舵手」儲存完好的遺體。天安門廣場既是首都北京地理上的中心，也是中國的政治中心，毛主席的遺體（或者更有可能的是一具蠟像）自他40年前逝世後就一直放在廣場上一座專門建造的紀念堂中供人瞻仰。