“Bigger than a famous landmark”

Here’s an ad for the Shimao Olive Garden (世茂奥临花园), a Beijing real estate development that “faces an 8.6 square kilometer ‘National Forest Park’ on the south side.”

The text under the lighbulb reads:

1. A lightbulb stuck in the mouth cannot be pulled out. Do not try this; otherwise, you’ll end up in the hospital.

2. There’s a strip of forest in urban Beijing that’s 19 times larger than the square at Beijing’s center.

Hard to believe, but true.

The second line is obviously referring to Tiananmen Square, which covers an area of 440,000 square meters, or roughly one-nineteenth of the size of the forest.

Why wasn’t it mentioned directly in the ad? Is the advertiser attempting subtlety here, or is there some regulation on advertising that proscribes any reference to national heritage sites?

Like other centers of national political activity, Tiananmen Square itself is prohibited from hosting ads, and there have been several attempts by the Beijing government to prohibit vehicles carrying advertising from traveling on Chang’an Avenue.

But as a geographic reference, it should be permissible, right?