Tiananmen Square, centre stage of the key political dramas of China's modern history, reopened yesterday after a facelift before the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic.
The vast plaza in Beijing came alive with thousands of Chinese tourists as workers finished removing a steel curtain that has surrounded the square since October.
"It really is beautiful," marvelled Mr Guan Lijun (28), accompanying his new bride on her first visit to the world's largest public square for their honeymoon.
Originally scheduled for completion in March, few people were surprised when the renovation was extended until after the 10th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators on June 4th, 1989, preventing commemorations of the killings.
The grey cement squares that had carpeted the plaza have been replaced with pale granite.
Dubbed "China's number one construction project" by state media, the 100 million yuan (£9 million) renovation has been the centrepiece of a citywide beautification project in anticipation of the nation's 50th anniversary on October 1st.
From Tiananmen, or the Gate of Heavenly Peace, situated at the north of the square, Mao Zedong announced to the masses on October 1st, 1949, that the Chinese people had "stood up".
Almost 40 years later, in June 1989, Tiananmen became a household name around the world as army troops fought their way into the square to end seven weeks of student-led demonstrations against official corruption and incompetence.
Yesterday, a brigade of workers in straw hats were scrubbing to remove chewing gum that stains a broad path of patterned stones that bisects the square.
The path is a vestige of China's imperial past and was preserved during the renovation. It travels directly south from the emperor's throne in the Forbidden City, through Tiananmen Square and symbolically into the kingdom.
"We're not allowed to use steel brushes," a migrant worker from Henan province said as he worked the bristles of a plain toothbrush into the grey stone path. "That would make it look worse than the gum," he said.