Great Hall of the People, a pioneering work in Chinese architecture history, was built by Chinese personnel during an astonishingly short period of ten months (from October 1958 to August 1959) and is included in the list of Ten Top Constructions in Beijing. Located in the west of the Tiananmen Square and facing the east, it has a south-north length of 336 meters, east-west 206 and height 46.5. It covers an area of 150,000 square meters with a floor area of 171,800 square meters. It is sublime, elegant and rich in traditional taste. The building mainly consists of three parts: the People’s Congress Hall in the middle that is spacious enough for ten thousand people, five-thousand-seat dining hall in the north and the office building for the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in the south.
The People’s Congress Hall, the main part of the building, has domed ceiling, wide span and non-pillar structure. The dining hall in the north wing of the second floor is grand, capacious and splendid, serving as the place where Chinese leaders hold national banquets and receptions.