Kaifeng Bagua Tower

Kaifeng Bagua Tower

【Bagua Tower】 Located within what is now the No. 1 Prison of Henan Province in Kaifeng City, the Bagua Tower is an octagonal platform watchtower built during the Republican era. A staircase leads to the top of the tower. On the ground floor, apart from a main entrance on the south side, the other seven sides each extend outward with a row of pointed-roof bungalows. Between the bungalows runs a corridor, with small guard rooms on either side. At the end of the corridor, three bungalows are built horizontally, isolated from the outside. Guards stationed in the central watchtower could monitor detainees in the seven surrounding prison blocks. Currently, only two of the bungalows remain, while the rest have been demolished. Before liberation, this tower was used by the Kuomintang to imprison Communists and other progressive individuals. Communists such as An Zizhi and Shao Wenjie were once detained and tortured here by the Kuomintang.