Xikeng Martyrs' Cemetery

Xikeng Martyrs' Cemetery

(Photography: Li Yuesong)

Xikeng Martyrs' Cemetery is a classic red tourism destination.

In January 1928, a group of Communist Party members and revolutionaries including Zhang Xuedong, Yang Dezhi, and Lin Peigao mobilized the masses in villages such as Xikeng, Dongkeng, and Baijiao’ao (now Aodi Township) in Shuangchao Township, organizing the Zhongshan Peasant Red Guards to carry out armed struggle. Later, the Red Guards were reorganized into the 9th Company of the 1st Regiment of the 13th Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

The Red Army soldiers from Xikeng, armed with homemade cannons, muskets, and broadswords, participated in more than ten battles including those in Huangkeng, Fenglin, Qingtian, Jinyun, and Ouqu. They once intercepted a Kuomintang army convoy traveling from Wenzhou to Wenxi at Shuangxi in Shuangchao. Between 1929 and 1931, the reactionary Kuomintang forces and local militias carried out around twenty to thirty “cleansing” operations of varying scales against Xikeng. The most brutal of these occurred on August 27, 1930, when eight out of eleven party members in the village were killed, six villagers lost their lives, and all but two remote old houses—136 homes in total—were burned down along with all belongings. Livestock were looted, over 80 households were displaced, and families were torn apart. During the New Democratic Revolution period, a large number of outstanding sons and daughters from Xikeng sacrificed their precious lives for the liberation of the Chinese people.

Xikeng Martyrs' Cemetery is located in Xikeng Village, Shuangchao Township, Lucheng District, Wenzhou City. To commemorate the martyrs who died, the villagers of Xikeng spontaneously built a simple martyrs' tomb on the Huangmaoping hillside in 1950. In 1960, the local government relocated the martyrs' tomb to Huangniyi in Xikeng Village. It was renovated in 1984 by the Civil Affairs Bureau of Ou Hai County, covering an area of 250 square meters. In April 1999, the Xikeng Martyrs' Tomb was expanded into a martyrs' cemetery spanning 3,500 square meters. The cemetery includes the Xikeng Revolutionary Martyrs Monument, martyrs' burial grounds, a memorial plaza, Zhuanghuai Pavilion, a 100-meter-long corridor, and cliff inscriptions. Eighteen revolutionary martyrs from Shuangchao are buried in the cemetery, with their names inscribed on stone tablets for future generations to mourn and commemorate.

Xikeng Martyrs' Cemetery is a Wenzhou Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit and a Ou Hai District Patriotic Education Base.

Source: Party History Research Office of the CPC Wenzhou Municipal Committee