Former Site Cluster of the Capital Street

Former Site Cluster of the Capital Street

The Former Site Cluster of the Capital Street is a classic red tourism destination and a patriotic education base.

The Former Site Cluster of the Capital Street is located in the city center of Xin County and stretches 400 meters in length. The current county seat of Xin County—Xinji—was an important market town in the southern part of Guangshan County before 1932.

Around 1930, several counties at the junction of Hubei, Henan, and Anhui provinces successively overthrew the reactionary rule of local landlords and gentry, becoming revolutionary bases. Many reactionary landlords and gentry fled to Xinji and joined forces with local reactionary elements, turning Xinji into a reactionary feudal stronghold. Using Xinji as their base, they frequently raided the surrounding revolutionary bases. It was like a nail stuck right in the heart of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area. In order to connect the Hubei-Henan border region with the northwestern part of Anhui and unify the Soviet Areas, the Red Army decided to eliminate this obstacle. Two fierce assaults in August 1929 and June 1930 failed to capture the town. In early February 1931 (lunar December), the 30th Regiment of the 10th Division of the Fourth Red Army, under the command of Regimental Commander Wang Shusheng, was ordered to launch a third attack on Xinji. After intense fighting, Xinji returned to the people’s hands for the first time.

The liberation of Xinji connected the Hubei-Henan and northwestern Anhui Soviet Areas, leading many of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Border Region’s central authorities to relocate to Xinji. As a result, Xinji became the capital and the political, economic, military, and cultural center of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Revolutionary Base. On this very street alone, there were institutions such as the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Sub-bureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Provincial Committee, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Provincial Soviet Government, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Military Commission, the Headquarters of the Fourth Red Army, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Provincial Political Security Bureau, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Provincial Bank, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area Taxation Bureau, and the Sixth Branch of the Red Army Hospital. Some of these historic sites are still well preserved today.