Former Site of the 207th Regiment of the Red Army

Former Site of the 207th Regiment of the Red Army

The former site of the 207th Regiment of the Red Army is a cultural heritage site protected by Fujian Province, a classic red tourism destination, and a patriotic education base.

The former site of the 207th Regiment of the Red Army is located in Qiaotou Natural Village, Aodong Village, Baisha Town, Hanjiang District, Putian City.

The site consists of the Aobing Palace (headquarters), Aobing Bridge (outpost), and an exhibition hall (newly built), covering an area of 4,000 square meters.

Aobing Palace is located at the northern end of Aobing Bridge in Aodong Village. It was built in the 29th year of the Shaoxing era of the Southern Song Dynasty (1159) as a temple to enshrine the “master builder” of Aobing Bridge. It was rebuilt during the Qing Dynasty and renovated again in the 1980s. The structure faces south, features a single-courtyard layout, and is built with earth and wood in a flush-gable roof style. Along the central axis are, in sequence, the front hall, courtyard, and main hall, with side rooms on both sides. The main hall has three bays in width and four pillars in depth, with a post-and-lintel wooden frame. The left side room has two bays, while the right side room has three. On the left gable wall, there is a slogan left by the Red Army: “Capture Chiang Kai-shek, the bandit leader.” At that time, Aobing Palace was the only route from downtown Putian to the mountainous areas of Guangye (a general term for the regions of Baisha, Zhuangbian, Xinxian, and Dayang). Serving as a revolutionary stronghold led by the Chinese Communist Party in Putian, it was here that the first Party branch in the mountainous areas of Putian was established in 1926, and the first workers’ and peasants’ guerrilla unit in Putian was formed in 1928. In June 1930, Luo Ming, Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the CCP, inspected Putian and decided to dispatch military officer Huang Wan to take charge of military affairs in Putian to strengthen the leadership of armed struggle. After arriving in Putian, Huang Wan gathered scattered guerrilla forces from various locations and regrouped them in Aobing and Dongdu. In mid-August, Huang Wan, Chen Tianzhang, Wang Jixiu, and others held a military meeting at Yuantong Temple in Dongquan, Baisha, announcing the establishment of the 207th Regiment (8th Division) of the 23rd Army of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, with over 50 soldiers. Huang Wan was appointed regimental commander, and Chen Tianzhang as political commissar. It was also decided to establish Red Guards in qualified villages such as Aobing and Dongquan to support the Red Army in carrying out the land revolution. After the meeting, the 207th Regiment and the Guangye District Committee of the CCP held mass rallies at Aobing Palace to promote the land revolution, posted revolutionary slogans in villages, and carried out struggles against local despots.

Aobing Bridge is a flat-beam stone bridge built in the 13th year of the Shaoxing era of the Southern Song Dynasty (1143). Spanning the Aobing Stream and running from north to south, it is an 8-pier, 9-span stone beam bridge, with a total length of 49.3 meters, a deck length of 43.9 meters, a width of 2.10 meters, and a height of about 6 meters, featuring boat-shaped piers. The deck is paved with stone slabs of varying lengths arranged horizontally and vertically, and is flanked by stone railings, with four pairs of stone balusters and two pairs of stone lions remaining. The bridge is simple and rustic in design. On the western side near the southern end of the deck, there is an inscription reading “April, 13th Year of Shaoxing, Song Dynasty,” and it has undergone repairs throughout the dynasties. The 207th Regiment used Aobing Palace as its headquarters and set up an outpost at the bridgehead. Together with seven surrounding veteran revolutionary base villages centered around the Aobing Branch, they formed a revolutionary base of struggle.

The revolutionary struggle at Aobing Palace is hailed in the history of Putian’s revolution as achieving “four firsts”: the establishment of the first township-level peasant association, the creation of the first rural Party branch, the founding of the first issue of the “Lenin Primary School,” and the formation of the first workers’ and peasants’ Red Army guerrilla unit. During the War of Resistance Against Japan and the Liberation War, the headquarters of the Central Fujian Special (Work) Committee and the Putian County Committee were both stationed at Aobing Palace.

The exhibition hall is located behind Aobing Palace. It is a revolutionary memorial hall supported by the Putian Municipal Committee and Municipal Government of the CCP and built in 2001. The two-story building covers an area of 400 square meters. The first floor is an exhibition room that vividly displays, through text and images, the revolutionary deeds of the Putian Party organization leading the people in heroic struggles in the Guangye area from the establishment of the Party organization in Putian in 1926 to the liberation in 1949. It also showcases the contributions made by the people of Aobing to economic development and social progress after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, continuing to uphold the revolutionary spirit of “the red flag never falls” under the care of the Party and government. The exhibition hall also displays cultural relics and precious historical materials used by the Red Army at that time, including cannons, bugles, spears, broadswords, lanterns, and straw shoes.

The former site of the 207th Regiment of the Red Army was designated as a cultural heritage site of Putian County by the Putian County People’s Government in October 1981, as a cultural heritage site of Fujian Province by the Fujian Provincial People’s Government in November 2009, as a patriotic education base of Fujian Province by the Fujian Provincial Committee and Provincial People’s Government of the CCP in December 2001, as a third-batch provincial-level cultural heritage site and Party history education base by the Party History Research Office of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the CCP in November 2012, and as a Party history education base of Putian City by the Party History Research Office of the Putian Municipal Committee of the CCP in June 2010.

Source: Party History Research Office of the Putian Municipal Committee