CHINA: Zhao Ziyang was declared a non-person by China's rulers, but thousands are mourning his death. Clifford Coonan reports from Beijing
You can't move for flowers in the courtyard compound of the purged Communist Party chief, Zhao Ziyang. Mr Zhao died at 85 in a Beijing hospital on Monday after suffering a series of strokes and after being held under tight security in this house for almost 16 years.
Wang Lingyun, mother of the exiled dissident, Wang Dan, who was one of the student leaders of the pro-democracy movement which was crushed on Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989, said there was no room to stand because of all the flowers when she went to pay her respects.
Plainclothes police officers stand guard outside the courtyard building not far from the Wangfujing shopping precinct and the Forbidden City.
Mr Zhao was once all-powerful in China, premier and general secretary of the Communist Party in the most populous country on Earth.
But all that came crashing down. He became a non-person after he was booted out of power in 1989 for opposing the People's Liberation Army crackdown on the student-led Tiananmen Square demonstrations for democracy.
China's leaders are worried that an outpouring of public grief over his death could be a trigger for political instability. The leadership fears his passing could provide a rallying point for the disaffected rural poor, students and workers seeking economic and political reforms.
The family have decided not to have a state funeral and chose instead to have a gathering of friends, relatives and other mourners at the Zhao home. The procession of mourners into the house was expected to last a few days.
It's not so easy to locate the hutong, or laneway, where Mr Zhao's house is located, but the presence of police guards is a help.
At the entrance gate, there stands a group of young men, wearing white flowers as is traditional in China for death rites or funerals.
The courtyard building is an old-fashioned one, with grey walls and dark-red woodwork. There are dozens of wreaths, with strips of narrow white cloth attached saying: "For Dear Comrade Zhao Ziyang". One says: "You are finally free."
In the yard there is a book of condolences, with a pen for guests to sign their names. The book was nearly full.
The mourning hall itself is small and simple, very clean, with no furniture. It, too, is full of funeral garlands, above which hangs a picture of the handsome former supreme leader.
It is more than just a head and shoulders shot - it was taken when he was older, probably about 75.
Mr Zhao is smiling, looking into the distance, his hair slightly windswept, and he is wearing a casual shirt.
Two of his relatives greet the mourners in the hall.
An old man in his 80s, probably a veteran of the Long March campaign which brought the Communists to power, comes in, assisted by his friends, keen to pay his respects.
After a simple cremation ceremony, Mr Zhao will be buried at Babaoshan, or Eight Treasures Hill Revolutionary Cemetery which is the Chinese equivalent of Arlington Cemetery in the United States.
He was credited as the leader who oversaw 10 years of economic reform, beginning in the late 1970s, which transformed China from an isolated Communist state into one of Asia's economic engines.
His last public appearance was on May 19th, 1989, when he and the current Premier, Wen Jiabao, visited student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, in front of the Forbidden City.
Mr Zhao urged them to leave the square and said that the police would use force if they did not. He then bade them a tearful farewell, saying: "I have come too late".
The Communist Party declared martial law the following day, and Mr Zhao was ousted and replaced soon afterwards by Jiang Zemin.
The army rolled in with tanks to clear the protesters on the night of June 3rd-4th.
China has insisted that the crackdown was the correct decision and restated its position again this week.
The death of a disgraced former leader has often been a catalyst for dissent in Chinese political culture.
The death in April 1989 of Hu Yaobang, the reformist party chief, ignited the Tiananmen demonstrations.
In 1976 the death of Zhou Enlai, the prime minister, led to an outpouring of grief and protest in Tiananmen Square that brought about the collapse of the Gang of Four.