Cemetery of the Fallen Soldiers in the Gubeikou Battle

Cemetery of the Fallen Soldiers in the Gubeikou Battle

The Cemetery of the Fallen Soldiers in the Gubeikou Battle is a cultural relic protection unit of Beijing Municipality.

The Cemetery of the Fallen Soldiers in the Gubeikou Battle is situated at the foot of the Great Wall on the west side of the national highway, outside Nanguan of Gubeikou Town, Beijing. It features a tall burial mound built from yellow sandy soil (commonly known as the "Meat Mound Tomb"). The tomb is surrounded by a flower-patterned wall made of blue bricks, over two meters high, with an entrance in the southeast direction and a gate tower standing three meters tall. This cemetery is an important revolutionary site from the Anti-Japanese War period and stands as historical evidence of the Japanese imperialism's invasion of China.

The Cemetery of the Fallen Soldiers in the Gubeikou Battle features a tall burial mound built from yellow sandy soil (commonly known as the "Meat Mound Tomb"), which is six meters high with a base diameter of 15 meters. The tomb is enclosed by a flower-patterned wall made of blue bricks, over two meters high, with an entrance in the southeast direction and a gate tower three meters tall. On both sides of the gate pillars is a commemorative couplet. The upper line reads: “Gallant men shine brighter than the sun and moon,” the lower line: “Loyal souls inspire awe in mountains and rivers,” and the horizontal inscription reads: “Spirit of Iron and Blood.” In front of the tomb stands a 2.5-meter-high granite stele. At the top of the stele is inscribed: “Cemetery of the Fallen Soldiers in the Gubeikou Battle, Year of Guisui,” and at the bottom: “Military Committee of the Nationalist Government, Beiping Branch,” “Erected in March, the 24th Year of the Republic of China.”

In 1933, after the Gubeikou section of the Great Wall defense battles, the streets and alleys of both eastern and southern Gubeikou were strewn with corpses, and the bodies of fallen soldiers were scattered across valleys and fields. Those who died along the roads and in the alleys were buried by local residents in vegetable cellars, while those in the valleys and fields were interred by Wang Leru, a Taoist priest from the Temple of General Yang Linggong, who led people to find burial sites. Later, after the signing of the Tanggu Agreement between China and Japan, the central government of the Nationalist Party transported 500 sets of remains to Bengbu to establish a separate cemetery. Other remains were collected again—over 360 bodies—under the funding of the Beiping Branch of the Military Committee of the Nationalist Government, organized by the Gubeikou Chamber of Commerce and led by Taoist priest Wang Leru, who mobilized locals. These remains were buried in a large pit dug at the western foothills outside Nanguan of Gubeikou. The bodies were layered with straw mats, totaling three layers, and finally covered with a large earthen mound (which people began calling the “Meat Mound Tomb”). A flower-patterned wall was built around the mound, with a commemorative couplet inscribed on the gate pillars. The Beiping Branch of the Military Committee of the Nationalist Government erected a stele in front of the tomb. Since then, this cemetery has stood as a historical testament to the Chinese people’s resistance against foreign aggression. Unfortunately, during the Cultural Revolution, the tomb was damaged—the stele was toppled, the flower wall was torn down, and the mound was nearly leveled.

In 1993, initiated and led by the Miyun County CPPCC in collaboration with the county government, a comprehensive and thorough restoration of the cemetery was carried out. At the same time, a new “Great Wall Defense Gubeikou Battle Memorial Monument” and pavilion were constructed. Inside the pavilion stands a horizontal black marble stele, measuring 2.7 meters long, 1.5 meters high, and 0.3 meters thick. The front of the stele bears twelve golden characters inscribed by He Luli, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang: “Great Wall Defense Gubeikou Battle Memorial Monument.” The back of the stele details the full course of the Gubeikou battle during the Great Wall Defense.

Gubeikou Village: Gubeikou Village

Upon arriving at Gubeikou Village in Gubeikou Town, beside the tunnel near the town’s southern exit, a four-meter-high antique-style memorial archway with gold-leafed regular and running script reading “Ancient Imperial Road” stands out prominently. Looking along the archway, through the green mountains and trees, a four-meter-wide ancient stone-paved road winds its way deep into Panlong Mountain. Song Libin, the village Party branch secretary, explained that this Ancient Imperial Road was originally built in 1682 when Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty passed through the pass. Today, to revive borderland culture and develop leisure economy, the town has restored it based on historical documents from that era. The entire imperial road is four meters wide... More information about Gubeikou Village++

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Municipal-Level Cultural Relic Protection Units in Beijing