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Chairman Mao may be dead but he still has many admirers in China as testified by the long cue waiting to see him by filing past closely in solemn silence for less than a minute. Mao is considered an accomplished poet, calligraphist and historian by friends and foes alike.
Chairman Mao's Mausoleum was completed in 1977 a year after his death. The entrance featured a white marbled seated Mao and behind him a large landscape tapestry from a painting by artist Huang Yongyu. In the Hall of Reverence Mao Zedong's body lies in state surrounded by flowers and draped with a Red Flag of Communist China. His casket with a glass top lies on a black stone from Mt. Tai, reflecting the quotation from Sima Qian (China's Han Dynasty historian) that "One's life can be weightier than Mt. Tai or lighter than a goose feather".
Mao's body was apparently embalmed with Soviet help. The casket is lowered each night into an underground refrigerator, and raised again each morning. One of his poems in his own calligraphy, "Reply to Guo Moruo", is featured at the southern hall. All sorts of Mao memorabilia can be bought around the mausoleum.
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