Memorial Hall of the Guangdong Central Column

Memorial Hall of the Guangdong Central Column

The Memorial Hall of the Guangdong Central Column is a classic red tourism destination and a patriotic education base.

The Guangdong Central Column of the Chinese People's Liberation Army was a people’s revolutionary armed force in the central region of Guangdong under the leadership of the Communist Party of China during the Liberation War. Its predecessor was the Guangdong People’s Anti-Japanese Army. The Guangdong Central Region is located in the central-southern part of Guangdong Province, backed by mountains and facing the sea, adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, and included at the time fourteen counties: Xinhui, Gaoming, Gaoyao (southern part), Heshan, Taishan, Chixi, Kaiping, Enping, Yangjiang, Yangchun, Xinxing, Yunfu, Luoding, and Yunan. It covered an area of approximately 27,000 square kilometers with a population of about 4.68 million. The people of Guangdong Central had a proud tradition of revolutionary struggle. During the period of the Great Revolution, local party branches were established relatively early here, and the labor and peasant movements flourished vigorously. During the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the worker-peasant uprisings led by the Party were stirring and tragic, although local party organizations were once severely damaged. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Guangdong Central Party organizations were rebuilt and promoted the vigorous development of the anti-Japanese salvation movement across the region, strengthening the people’s revolutionary forces. In January 1945, the Party established the Guangdong People’s Anti-Japanese Army in the Guangdong Central Region, launching a full-scale armed resistance against Japan across the region. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, in order to strive for national peace, in accordance with the agreement signed by the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, some personnel of the Guangdong Central People’s Anti-Japanese Armed Forces moved northward with the Dongjiang Column to Shandong, while more than 1,000 cadres and soldiers were demobilized, leaving only 140 armed backbone members to carry out covert struggles to protect the interests of the masses. After the outbreak of the full-scale civil war, at the end of 1946, in accordance with the decisions of the Party Central Committee and the Guangdong Regional Party Committee on resuming armed struggle, the Guangdong Central Party organizations took the armed personnel who had persisted in covert struggle as the backbone, relying on and mobilizing the masses to rebuild their forces and carry out armed struggle. The Guangdong Central People’s Armed Forces developed rapidly and grew stronger. In July 1949, with the approval of the CPC Central Committee, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Guangdong Central Column was established, comprising four detachments (regiments) and two independent battalions, totaling over 16,000 personnel. Over the course of four years of arduous guerrilla warfare, the Guangdong Central Column fought more than 360 battles against the enemy, killed, wounded, or captured over 3,000 enemies, and disintegrated or induced the surrender of over 5,000 enemy troops. They frustrated the frequent “mopping-up” operations of the Kuomintang army, controlled and liberated vast rural areas of the Guangdong Central Region. Finally, they cooperated with the advancing field armies to liberate the entire Guangdong Central Region.

In order to inherit and promote the fine traditions of the revolution and showcase the glorious history of the Guangdong Central Column, in March 2004, veterans of the Guangdong Central Column proposed the establishment of a memorial hall at Heshui Market in Genghe Town, Gaoming District, where the column was originally founded. With strong support from the CPC Foshan Municipal Committee and Municipal Government, the CPC Jiangmen Municipal Committee and Municipal Government, the CPC Gaoming District Committee and District Government of Foshan, as well as the active assistance of the provincial and Jiangmen municipal Party history research offices and other former Guangdong Central Party history departments, construction of the memorial hall began in the first half of 2004 and was completed in November 2005. Ou Chu, former Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the Guangdong Central Column, inscribed the name of the memorial hall.

Gaoming is the hometown of Tan Pingshan, Tan Zhitang, and Tan Tiandu (collectively known as the “Three Tans”), who were prominent early revolutionary activists of our Party. The Heshui area was one of the main revolutionary bases of the Guangdong Central Column. On August 1, 1949, the column held a military-civilian conference here to officially announce the decision of the CPC Central Committee approving the establishment of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Guangdong Central Column. After liberation, a Revolutionary Martyrs’ Memorial Hall and Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery were successively built here. Now, the establishment of the Memorial Hall of the Guangdong Central Column here not only helps better preserve precious revolutionary historical materials and highlight the historical achievements of the Guangdong Central military and civilians, but also adds another educational base for fostering patriotism in Gaoming’s revolutionary old area. Moreover, it holds profound significance for promoting the construction of a culturally strong province and a harmonious society in Guangdong.

The memorial hall has a construction area of 1,100 square meters. The building has two floors, and the decoration design of the memorial hall is simple and solemn. The exhibition hall displays nearly 600 pieces (items) of cultural relics, pictures, and text introductions from various units of the Guangdong Central Column, showcasing their efforts in persisting in the liberation struggle of the Guangdong Central Region at different historical stages. These materials systematically and vividly reproduce the arduous struggle of the Guangdong Central Column during the Liberation War.

The museum is currently a patriotic education base and offers free admission to organized groups of primary and secondary school students. It serves as a fundamental site open to the public for patriotic education.

Genghe Town: Genghe Town is located in the western part of Gaoming District, situated at the central axis where the eastern and western parts of the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration converge. It is 35 kilometers from the central urban area of Gaoming, Hecity, borders Gaoyao to the north, Heshan to the south, and connects to Xinxing to the west. Provincial Highway Guanggao runs through the two towns, making it an important passage connecting Foshan to western Guangdong, as well as the western gateway of Foshan City. Gaoming District is approximately 46 kilometers from downtown Foshan, about 75 kilometers from Guangzhou, 66 kilometers from Jiangmen, and 74 kilometers from Zhaoqing. Its distance to cities such as Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macao is also around 100 kilometers. Most of the town consists of low hills, hills, and plateaus, belonging to a low hilly area, with a total... More information about Genghe Town++