Tiananmen Square Opens After Face Lift

After eight months under wraps, a refurbished Tiananmen Square in Beijing reopened to the public with new tank-proof paving, rules against chewing gum and an ordinance that temporarily banished one of the giant plaza’s greatest charms: its kite flyers. The square, China’s symbolic political heart and home to massive pro-democracy protests in 1989, had been closed for a face lift ahead of this year’s 50th anniversary of the founding of Communist China on Oct. 1. New regulations require kite flyers to obtain a permit. But enthusiasts who tried to obtain one were told that the office would not open until Thursday.