The cenotaph is in the center of Tian'anmen Square, and 463 meters away from the Tian'anmen Wall. It has a height of 37.94 meters, and composed with 13,000 pieces of granite and white marble. The project of the Cenotaph is started in August 1st, 1952, and finished in April, 1958. On May 1st, 1958, there hold a Grand inaugurate ceremony for it on the Tian'anmen Square.

The front side fo the cenotaph is look on the Tian'anmen kasbah. On it is the words "The People's Heros are immortal" written by President Mao Zedong. On the backside, there is the epigraph written by Premier Minister Zhou Enlai, which was drafted by President Mao. All epigraphs are enchased with gold-plating board.

On the base of the cenotaph there are ten pieces of white marble embossments. All of them are in height of 2 meters. The east side of it are: "Battle against opium", "Uprise from JinTian". In the south side there are: "Uprising WuChang", "5.4 Movement", "5.30 Movement". On the west side, there are "Uprise from NanChang", "War against Japan's invade". And the biggest one is on the north side, which shows "The Victory voyage through the long river". The ten embossments carved 180  figures in total. All of them are lifelike, shows high artstic value.