http://www.flickr.com/photos/ contrebis/5365855692/in/set-72157625848311844/

To the right of the image you can see the entrance to the Forbidden City. Zoom in to see Chairman Mao’s portrait hanging above the gateway.

In the centre of the image there is the Great Hall of the People; to the left of that, the Monument to the People’s Heroes; and further left, the Chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall.

It was tempting to stand in front of one of the police buggies, but after entering the Square you have already been intimidated by the security checks and bag scans.

Excuses

It’s very difficult to avoid visual artefacts when people are moving around so much. Even with this picture, with the orphaned shadows and noticeable seams, I spent several hours trying to improve the joins and matches between images. A good half-hour was taken up with trying to identify the same fence post between two images, taking into account the parallax shift. I don’t think it made any difference in the end.