Original site of Chezhou Mountain Middle School

Original site of Chezhou Mountain Middle School

The original site of Chezhou Mountain Middle School is a cultural relic protection unit of Hebei Province.

Hebei Fengrun Chezhou Mountain Middle School (abbreviated as Chezhong) was founded in 1903. It is a historic and prestigious school with a long tradition, rigorous academic standards, and a remarkable record of producing talented individuals. It was one of the first key secondary schools designated for development in Hebei Province.

Hebei Fengrun Chezhou Mountain Middle School is a century-old institution. Its predecessor was the Zunhua Prefecture Official Middle School. Established in 1903, it was jointly funded by the three counties of Fengrun, Yutian, and Zunhua under the prefecture, and was one of the first nine middle schools built in Zhili Province. Initially small in scale, it enrolled around 200 students over its first 10 years of operation, including more than 80 from Fengrun. However, the school maintained high educational standards. According to 1909 (the first year of the Xuantong era) statistics, among 2,419 students across 31 middle schools in the province, only 11 graduated, six of whom were from Zunhua Prefecture Middle School—ranking first in the province. An Ticheng, one of the early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party and a martyr, was among the notable graduates from Fengrun who studied here.

After the Xinhai Revolution, education in Fengrun County developed rapidly, and by 1912, six higher primary schools had been established. To address students’ difficulties in advancing to higher education, Fengrun County decided to separate from Zunhua Prefecture Official Middle School and establish Fengrun Preparatory Middle School independently. It admitted 108 students, initially holding classes in a temporary location within the city’s higher primary school, under the supervision of the primary school’s principal, Mr. Li Qiuye.

In the spring of 1913, Fengrun Middle School was officially established, with Li Qiuye serving as its first principal. In 1914, the county council selected Chezhou Mountain as the new school site. The main hall and auxiliary rooms of the Shoufeng Temple on Chezhou Mountain were renovated into classrooms and dormitories. Classes were moved to the new location that autumn.

In the autumn of 1914, Principal Li Qiuye left for a higher position, and Mr. Guo Lihang took over as principal. His 14-year tenure coincided with the Warlord Era, during which various military factions were too preoccupied with conflict to focus on education, providing the school with a stable environment for gradual growth. Principal Guo achieved two major accomplishments: First, he personally designed and oversaw the construction of a uniquely distinctive campus. Starting from the ancient beamless tower at the mountaintop and extending southward to the theater building by the sports field, he established a central axis. Following the natural contours of the mountain, he built a Romanesque two-story library, a spacious and grand meeting hall, the principal’s office, the accounting office, and the guardhouse in sequence. At the southern end stood a gate adorned with an ornamental iron lattice in the style of a memorial archway. On both sides of the central axis, over 300 rooms were arranged in fan-like formation, forming diverse teaching and dormitory zones. A fine arts graduate himself, Principal Guo created an expansive, unique, and artistically landscaped campus for future generations. Second, he established a stable teaching system, steadily improving educational quality. Students from Tangshan and other counties flocked to study here, and even foreigners visited the school. Students attending universities in Beijing and Tianjin were referred to as the “Chezhou alumni.” Fengrun Middle School became a nationally top-tier institution, earning the domestic reputation of “Wuxi in the South, Chezhou in the North.”

As early as 1928, the school established a Chinese Communist Party organization. Its first CCP-affiliated principal was Dong Zhiliang (who later changed his name to Dong Suiping while working underground). Over its nearly hundred-year history, the school has nurtured a large number of outstanding talents for the nation’s revolution and construction. Alumnus An Ticheng joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1922 through the introduction of Li Dazhao, and was sent to work at the Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou in 1926. Under the leadership of Comrade Zhou Enlai, he served as a political instructor and editor-in-chief of the school journal. He was martyred by the enemy in Longhua, Shanghai, in May 1927. More than ten senior leaders of the Party and the state, including Wu De, former member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress; Li Jiebo, former member of the Central Advisory Commission and Vice Minister of Railways; and Li Erzhong, former Governor of Hebei Province, joined the revolutionary cause after graduating from the school in the 1930s. Current members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairpersons of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, such as Wang Rongxuan—former member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and Secretary of the Chengdu Municipal Committee—as well as Wang Enke, Vice Chairman of the Qinghai Provincial People’s Congress, are among the school’s graduates from the 1950s and 1960s. Additionally, the school counts among its alumni a host of scholars and experts, including the famous playwright Song Zhidi and the eminent historian Yang Xiangkui.

Further reading:

· Fourth Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units in Hebei Province