The Mao Zedong Mausoleum in Beijing's Tiananmen Square
The Chinese completed this massive mausoleum in May 1977, eight months after Mao Zedong’s death. Because Mao died during an era of great Soviet-Chinese tension, officials had to seek embalming advice from the Vietnamese, who had previously preserved Ho Chi Minh. The embalming went off without a hitch. But the Vietnamese had received Ho’s crystal coffin directly from the Soviets and were unable to explain how to build the air-tight container. That forced the Chinese to develop their own glass coffin with only a photo of Lenin’s tomb as a guide. Mao’s Mausoleum closed for nine months in 1997 for renovations. Rumors suggested that Mao’s corpse, which had been filled with 22 liters of formaldehyde in 1976, had a leak.