Tianjin Zhongshan Park

Tianjin Zhongshan Park

Tianjin Zhongshan Park is a national AA-level tourist attraction, a Tianjin municipal cultural heritage site, and a patriotic education base.

Tianjin Zhongshan Park has a deep connection with Dr. Sun Yat-sen, as it became well known after he delivered an important speech here in 1912, the first year of the Republic of China. On August 24, Dr. Sun, at the invitation of Yuan Shikai, traveled north to discuss national affairs and attended an official and gentry welcome gathering in the park, where he gave an impromptu speech. Dr. Sun Yat-sen once gave speeches and conducted inspections in this park on two occasions. The park’s name was also changed in his honor.

This park, built during the late Qing Dynasty, can be said to have been facilitated by Yuan Shikai. In the late Qing era, patriotic industrialists in Tianjin actively advocated for national industrial efforts to revive the weakening strength of the Qing state. To showcase Tianjin’s industrial development, while constructing an exhibition hall called the “Industrial Exposition Hall,” they also planned to build a public garden open to the public, named the “Industrial Exposition Grounds.” Yuan Shikai seized the opportunity to use the exposition grounds as an example to persuade the Qing court to implement his “New Policies,” thereby advancing his own political career. At that time, the park displayed many Chinese industrial products and craft demonstrations.

- Also, during the First United Front between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party when Dr. Sun Yat-sen advocated cooperation with Russia and inclusion of the Communists, on June 6, 1915 (the 4th year of the Republic of China), he attended the Tianjin National Salvation Fundraising Rally. He gave a speech on stage at Tianjin Zhongshan Park, calling on the people to revitalize the national economy, vow to avenge national humiliation, and never become slaves. He also wrote the “Letter to Friends on Broadly Soliciting National Salvation Funds” as part of the campaign.

In addition, Tianjin Zhongshan Park was a site for modern Chinese — movements. Notably, in December 1910 (the 2nd year of the Xuantong reign of the Qing Dynasty), a wave of bourgeois constitutional — swept through Tianjin. At that time, Li Dazhao, a renowned revolutionary who was studying at the Beiyang Law and Politics College, also participated in the — as a student. There was also the incident on June 9, 1919 (the 8th year of the Republic of China), when people from all walks of life in Tianjin held a rally in the park to support the May Fourth Movement of patriotic students in Beijing, demanding the cancellation of the humiliating Twenty-One Demands and refusal to sign the Treaty of Versailles in Paris.

Address: No. 3, Zhongshan Park Road, Hebei District

Phone: 26293899

Further reading:

· Fourth Batch of Tianjin Municipal Cultural Heritage Sites