Mao mausoleum on Tiananmen Square

Mao mausoleum, Tiananmen Square - darkometer rating : 7 - Final resting place of China 's "Great Helmsman", Chairman Mao Zedong in the capital city Beijing. It's one of the Big 4 of mausoleums of Great Leaders of communist states. As with the other three, the embalmed body of the deceased Immortal lies on display in a glass coffin. It's a pilgrimage site and scores of people line up for a quick glimpse of the corpse. That's all you get anyway, as guards make sure you pass through quickly – and in respectful silence. (Obviously enough, no photography is allowed either.) Less respectful is the souvenir shop at the exit from the dimly-lit holy cavern. In contrast, the marble statue of the Great Chairman that you see before entering the actual crypt is reverential enough, though perhaps surprisingly reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln's statue in Washington … Outside there's a huge column with some words of praise for the revolution by Mao on it, as well as some truly pompous sculptures in full socialist realism glory. There are rumours that the body on display may not be real but a wax model – what is certain is that China had trouble with the required preservation techniques. The experts in the field were in Russia (who benefited from decades of experience with Lenin 's body ) but the countries weren't on speaking terms at the time of Mao 's death. So they turned to Vietnam , whose own leader Ho Chi Minh had been similarly preserved beyond death with Russian help a few years earlier. There's another link to uncle Ho: neither Mao nor Ho had actually wanted to be put on display after death. Instead they had requested to be cremated. Neither wish was granted by the respective successors in power. Too great was the desire (or felt necessity) to continue and extend the cult of personality surrounding these Leaders.