Yangzhou High School Academy Square

Yangzhou High School Academy Square

To fully showcase the achievements of academicians, inspire Yangzhou High School students to strive for excellence, and enrich the scholarly and cultural atmosphere of Yangzhou, in 2015 the municipal Party committee and government decided to establish the "Yangzhou High School Academy Square."

The Yangzhou High School Academy Square is situated at No. 33 Huaihai Road, directly across from Yangzhou High School, with a total area of approximately 3,200 square meters. To promote the project, the Municipal Education Bureau and Yangzhou High School established a project leadership team. Based on preliminary designs from multiple design firms, they selected a company for the square's layout design and another for the sculpture design. With the care of Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee Xie Zhengyi and support from various sectors, the construction progressed smoothly and was completed in September 2015, becoming a new extension of the school’s history museum.

The century-old prestigious Yangzhou High School has nurtured a large number of outstanding talents, including 49 academicians such as Huang Weilu, a founding figure of China’s “Two Bombs, One Satellite” program, and recipients of the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award Wu Zhengyi and Wu Liangyong, as well as numerous experts, scholars, officials at all levels, and high-caliber professionals from various industries.

The core layout of the square highlights the word “Academicians.” All structures are related to academicians, arranged from south to north as follows: a relief wall, academicians’ statues, and a memorial hall. There are three relief walls in the square, introducing the 49 academicians who graduated from Yangzhou High School. One of the walls also features an inscription titled “Record of the Academy Square” on its front. The four academicians’ statues, representing a theorist, botanist Wu Zhengyi, architect Wu Liangyong, and “Two Bombs, One Satellite” pioneer Huang Weilu, are crafted as life-sized 1:1 models and are positioned at the center of the square as embodiments of the academicians’ spirit. To the north of the Academy Square lies a Republic of China-era building—the Lianghuai Salt Administration Audit Office—which is now a municipal cultural heritage site. It has been repurposed as the Academicians Exhibition Hall. On the first floor of the hall, photographs and introductions of the 49 academicians are displayed for public and student viewing. The “stone path” at the base of the square is inscribed with numbers representing years, forming a timeline that marks important milestones in Yangzhou High School’s history, such as 1937 and 1945—two dates related to the Anti-Japanese War. These dates are engraved on the stone path. After the fall of Yangzhou, the school was relocated elsewhere, and these events mark the memory of Yangzhou High School leaving and later returning to the city. West of the Academy Square stands the Yangzhou High School Relocation Memorial Tower, which has also become a highlight of the square. To the east of the tower, along the inward curve of the school fence facing the road, a new relief wall has been built. Its front features iconic campus buildings such as the Pinzi Building and Shuren Hall, while the back is engraved with the “Inscription of the Relocation Memorial Tower,” describing the school’s relocation during the war and the rebuilding and commemoration after victory. The Relocation Memorial Tower was constructed in 1946 and rebuilt in 2002. This tower, together with the Academy Square, has become a symbol of the spirit of Yangzhou High School.