Former Site of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Front and Rear Work Committee

Former Site of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Front and Rear Work Committee

The Former Site of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Front and Rear Work Committee is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit and a classic red tourism attraction.

The Former Site of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Front and Rear Committee, also known as the Former Site of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Front and Rear Work Committee, is located in the Gospel Church on the middle section of Laicheng Street in Lushan County, Henan Province, west of the county party committee compound.

The building of the Former Site of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Front and Rear Committee was originally built in 1891. At that time, some Norwegian Christian missionaries came to Lushan to preach and built a church adjacent to the southwest of this building, naming it the Gospel Church. This building served as an auxiliary structure, functioning as the residence for pastors and missionaries, and locals referred to it as the Pastor’s Building. The structure is a Western European-style brick-and-wood building and was the most elegant building in Lushan at the time. When Lushan was liberated in 1947, the missionaries left, and the site became the residence of the leaders of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Rear Work Committee.

During the Liberation War, Lushan briefly served as the capital of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Border Region and the Western Henan Region, acting as their political, economic, and cultural center, with relatively developed industry and commerce. On April 25, 1948, at a joint meeting of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Front and Rear Committees held in Lushan County, Deng Xiaoping delivered a report titled “The Victorious Situation of Advancing into Central China and Future Policies and Strategies,” which experts later referred to as the Lushan Report. This report is considered by experts to be the prototype of Deng Xiaoping’s early economic thought. The Former Site of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Front and Rear Committee is a witness to this significant historical event.

On April 22, 1948, Deng Xiaoping listened to a report from Pei Mengfei, then Political Commissar of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Rear Command Headquarters, in the Pastor’s Building of the Gospel Church in Lushan County. He subsequently conducted an inspection of Lushan’s industrial and commercial sectors on West Guan Street in the county town. Kang Bingtao, a staff member of the Lushan County Party History Research Office, said that during the Liberation War, Lushan was a red capital where the party, government, and military leadership organs of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Border Region and the Western Henan Region were all established. Newspapers, stamps, and currency of the Western Henan Liberated Area were issued in Lushan. In June 1948, the Henan-Western Regional Party Committee established the city of Lushan.

According to Liu Yumin, who was then the Deputy Mayor of Lushan City and later served as Deputy Minister of the Organization Department of the Xuchang Regional Party Committee, the original Lushan County town had 5,044 resident households with a population of over 20,000. Adding the 50,000–60,000 people from the Western Henan regional agencies, subordinate units, and stationed troops, the task of supplying military needs and supporting the frontlines was immense and beyond the capacity of the urban area alone. Therefore, the Western Henan leadership decided to establish Lushan City, directly under the leadership of the Western Henan Regional Party Committee and Administrative Office. Lushan City comprised four towns: South City, North City, South Guan, and North Guan. In February 1949, the Western Henan Administrative Office moved to Kaifeng, and the establishment of Lushan City was abolished.

To protect this important historical site, in September 2001, Lushan County allocated more than 200,000 yuan to renovate the Former Site of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Front and Rear Work Committee and simultaneously prepare to build the Western Henan Revolutionary Memorial Hall. In February 2004, Liu Huaqing, former member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, inscribed the name of the memorial hall.

On August 18, 2004, on the 100th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s birth, the Western Henan Revolutionary Memorial Hall was opened to the public. In 2005, it became one of the first 26 key red classic attractions under provincial-level construction.

In 2006, the Former Site of the Henan-Shaanxi-Hubei Front and Rear Work Committee was listed by the Henan Provincial Government as a fourth batch of cultural relics protection units.

On November 23, 2007, on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Lushan, the expanded Western Henan Revolutionary Memorial Hall was reopened to the public. Two rows of bungalows in front of the memorial hall were demolished, and the square area expanded from several dozen square meters to 800 square meters. A former member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission personally inscribed the plaque “Deng Xiaoping’s Former Residence in Lushan.”

In 2008, Lushan County renovated West Guan Street, which Deng Xiaoping had inspected.

In early 2013, the site was announced by the State Council as part of the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units