Mayor Bertrand Delanoe made the award in what French President Nicolas Sarkozy described as a municipal matter, not an act of state.

France has been trying to repair ties with China after recent tensions between the two countries.

But Chinese twitterers proved that there are ways to get round the great firewall of China.

Frequent twittering from users in China has contributed to Tiananmen becoming one of Twitter's most discussed topics during the anniversary.

Besides the Tiananmen anniversary itself, what seemed to be most important to Chinese twitterers was the blocking of sites. Advice on how to access Twitter - by using a proxy, VPN (virtual private network) or Hotspot shield - spread around quickly.