Qidao Gully Memorial Site for Compatriots Who Died Tragically

Qidao Gully Memorial Site for Compatriots Who Died Tragically

The Qidao Gully Memorial Site for Compatriots Who Died Tragically is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit and a classic red tourism destination.

The Monument to the Miners Who Died at Qidao Gully Iron Mine During the Puppet Regime, located in Qidao Gully Village in the southern part of Guosong Town, Tonghua County, is about one li from the village center and one kilometer from the Qidao Gully Iron Mine. It covers an area of 2,800 square meters, with a protected area of 1,500 square meters. The monument is 7 meters high, 2 meters wide, and 0.65 meters thick. The front of the monument is inscribed in intaglio with: Monument to the Miners Who Died at Qidao Gully Iron Mine During the Puppet Regime.

The Qidao Gully Iron Mine in Tonghua County was first discovered in 1898 by a local ginseng farmer named Du Baojia. In 1905, the Qing government granted the mining rights to a landlord named Li Fangyun who had contributed to suppressing the Boxer Rebellion. After the Japanese invasion of Northeast China, they frantically plundered various resources. Between 1933 and 1938, Japanese technicians conducted multiple surveys at the Qidao Gully Iron Mine. In 1938, the Qidao Mining Office was established, and formal mining operations began in 1939. By the time of Japan’s surrender in 1945, over 3.5 million tons of ore had been looted. The invaders adhered to fascist policies of “extracting rich ores only,” “taking ore instead of people,” and “trading human lives for ore,” subjecting miners to extremely brutal enslavement and abuse. Miners were sourced through four channels: deception and recruitment from Shandong, Henan, and Hebei provinces; conscription and rounding up of vagrants; arrest of anti-Japanese resistance fighters and patriots; and unfit conscripts from the “Labor Service Corps” who failed military examinations. At that time, mine production equipment was extremely rudimentary, workers suffered from malnutrition, medical conditions were abysmal, and there were no safety measures. Coupled with excessive working hours, food and wage deductions, beatings, and other forms of cruelty, this led to massive injuries and deaths among miners. The Japanese built two crematoria operating 24 hours a day but still could not process bodies in time, so they simply dumped corpses or half-dead miners into large pits, forming three “mass graves” known as West Railway, Cao Family Tomb, and Banfanggou. The sites were littered with corpses and bones, a horrifying sight. From 1939 to 1945, more than 17,000 workers died from disease, starvation, accidents, and brutal treatment.

Formed between 1939 and 1945, and utilized starting May 1964. On May 1, 1964, the People's Committee of Tonghua County erected a monument at the largest mass grave site in West Railway. The site has since been well preserved and utilized with a high level of construction quality. It is now a County-Level Cultural Relics Protection Unit and a Municipal Patriotic Education Base. (Provided by the Party School of the CPC Tonghua County Committee)

On October 7, 2019, the Qidao Gully Memorial Site for Compatriots Who Died Tragically was included in the eighth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Eighth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units