Tangshan Dazhao Park

Tangshan Dazhao Park

Covering a total area of 14.80 hectares, Dazhao Park is surrounded by four main and secondary roads in the city center: Wenhua Road, Jianshe Road, Xinhua Avenue, and Guofang Avenue, and adjacent to the majestic Anti-Earthquake Memorial Square on its northern side. It is a municipal comprehensive park that primarily adopts a naturalistic style, embodies the traditional Chinese landscape garden aesthetic, and features a strong sense of the times. The park integrates recreation, entertainment, science popularization, and cultural education.

Li Dazhao was one of the main founders of the Communist Party of China and a pioneer of the communist movement in China. His hometown is Dahetao Village, Leting County, Tangshan City. To commemorate this great proletarian revolutionary, after the earthquake, the Tangshan Municipal People's Government decided to expand the People's Park into "Dazhao Park." Peng Zhen, then Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, inscribed the name of the park.

The main attraction, the Dazhao Memorial Area, is located inside the western entrance of the park, covering an area of about 1.5 hectares. It serves as the focal point of the scenic area and highlights the theme of the park. It features the largest granite bust of Li Dazhao in China, designed by Professor Qian Shaowu from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The bust stands atop an artificially built earthen mound, with a base that is 8.50 meters long, 3.60 meters wide, and about 3 meters high, clad in black marble. The shoulders of the bust span 6.25 meters; using an exaggerated technique, the size of the shoulders has been enlarged to emphasize Li Dazhao’s lofty ideal expressed in the phrase “With iron shoulders bearing righteousness, and skillful hands composing literature.” Below the base, juniper bushes are densely planted; their upward-reaching tips symbolize the sharp pen of Li Dazhao as he stood firm against his enemies. The backdrop of the bust is planted with an evergreen coniferous mixed forest composed of Chinese pine, oriental arborvitae, and Chinese juniper, highlighting the martyr’s unyielding heroic image and expressing people’s remembrance of him. Like these evergreens, he remains immortal and forever lives in the hearts of the people. On both sides of the central axis, formal rows of cedar, boxwood balls, and berberis balls create a solemn atmosphere. The green spaces on both sides of the axis are naturally planted with flowering shrubs, and the focal groupings feature evergreen trees and flowering shrubs, symbolizing how the revolutionary seeds sown by Li Dazhao have blossomed all over the country. It praises the brightly blooming flowers nurtured by the martyr’s blood.