Former Site of the Guangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Yingjia

Former Site of the Guangxi Provincial Committee of the CCP in Yingjia

The former site of the Guangxi Provincial Committee of the CCP in Yingjia is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction and a classic red tourism destination.

The former site of the Guangxi Provincial Committee of the CCP in Yingjia is located in Baishajing Village, Yantang Town, Zhongshan County.

On July 9, 1942, the “July 9 Incident” took place in Guilin. In October, the Guangxi Provincial Committee of the CCP moved to Baishajing Village in Zhongshan County, constructing makeshift huts in the tung oil tree forest behind the village to serve as its headquarters, thus re-establishing the command center of the underground CCP in Guangxi.

To commemorate the revolutionary activities carried out by the Provincial Committee in Zhongshan County and to educate people of all ethnic groups in the county to inherit and carry forward the revolutionary tradition, the CCP Zhongshan County Committee and the People’s Government of Zhongshan County built a memorial pavilion about 10 meters southeast of the original site in 1985. The pavilion is an octagonal, double-eaved, spire-roofed structure made of reinforced concrete, standing 2.08 meters tall with a total area of 261 square meters. At its center stands a black granite memorial stele.

In December 1940, the Southern Work Committee of the CCP (hereinafter referred to as the “Southern Committee”) re-established the Guangxi Provincial Committee of the CCP with Qian Xing as the secretary, with its headquarters located in Guilin.

In late May 1942, Guo Qian, the Organization Minister of the Southern Committee, was arrested by agents of the Kuomintang’s Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics (CBIS) and subsequently defected, revealing the names of leaders of both the Southern Committee and the Guangxi Provincial Committee. This led to the destruction of the Southern Committee’s headquarters and the loss of contact between the Guangxi Provincial Committee and its higher-level party organization. On July 9 of the same year, Guo Qian led CBIS agents to Guilin to destroy the Guangxi Provincial Committee’s headquarters. Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Committee Su Man, Women’s Department Head Luo Wenkun, and Special Courier of the Southern Committee Zhang Haiping were arrested and later martyred. A number of underground party members, progressive youths, students, and civilians were also arrested. This became the shocking “July 9 Incident” in Guilin.

After the incident, Secretary Qian Xing, regardless of his own safety, organized the emergency evacuation of party members and the organization before safely relocating to Lingchuan County. In October of the same year, after careful analysis and comparison, Qian Xing decided to move the Provincial Committee’s headquarters to Yingjia Township in Zhongshan County, where the party organization and mass base were relatively strong. With the assistance of Zhang Zanzhou, Secretary of the Yingjia Special Branch, they set up makeshift huts in the tung oil tree forest behind Baishajing Village to establish the new Provincial Committee headquarters. Qian Xing, using the alias Cai Yalu, and his wife Zou Bing, posing as refugees, continued to lead and direct the struggle of the entire underground CCP in Guangxi under harsh conditions. After relocating to Yingjia, the Provincial Committee followed the Party Central Committee’s directive for work in white areas: “Conceal strength, lie low for the long term, accumulate power, and await the right opportunity.” Despite the extremely adverse environment, they actively and prudently carried out party activities through various means.

To quickly strengthen the leadership of the Provincial Committee headquarters and ensure the normal operation of its work, Qian Xing successively transferred comrades such as Zhuang Yanlin (a courier for the Provincial Committee), Huang Jia (Special Commissioner for the CCP Eastern Guangxi Region), Xiao Lei (a courier for the Provincial Committee and Deputy Secretary of the Yingjia Special Branch), Wu Zanzhi (staff member of the Provincial Committee), and Wei Liren (a courier for the CCP Eastern Guangxi Region) from Guilin, Liuzhou, and other places, re-establishing a relatively stable command center for the CCP Guangxi Provincial Committee. At the same time, Qian Xing dispatched personnel to central, southern, and northern Guangxi, as well as to Huaiji County, to locate scattered party members, re-establish local party organizations, reorganize and set up communication liaison points, and quickly restore contact between the Provincial Committee and local party organizations.

After the destruction of the Provincial Committee headquarters, the Kuomintang Guangxi authorities continued their frantic manhunt for communists and the destruction of communist organizations, successively carrying out the “January 13 Incident” in Yulin and the “January 15 Incident” in Nanning. Faced with the frenzied enemy, Qian Xing remained calm, resolute, and composed in dealing with the situation.

In January and February 1943, Qian Xing successively instructed Xiao Lei and Lin Weiyun to secretly print the documents “A Call to the Guangxi Authorities and People of All Walks of Life Against the Continued Persecution by Reactionary Elements” and “A Call to All Comrades Against the Continued Persecution by Reactionary Elements” at the Beidi Temple in Dengcun. Distributed under the name of the “Guangxi Committee of the CCP,” these documents exposed the reactionary plots of the Kuomintang diehards and the brutal persecution of communists, while calling on all party members to learn from the revolutionary spirit of martyrdom displayed by comrades Su Man, Luo Wenkun, and Zhang Haiping, and to oppose the heinous acts of betrayal. These two proclamations not only exposed the crimes of the enemy but also educated and inspired fellow comrades.

To ensure the safety of the Provincial Committee’s activities in eastern Guangxi, Qian Xing reorganized the party organizations in the counties of eastern Guangxi. He successively established the Gucheng Branch, the Lipu-Mengshan-Xiuren Special Branch, and the He County Special Branch, converting the Gongcheng County and Huaiji County branches into special branches. He also restructured and strengthened the Yingjia Special Branch, appointing Zhang Zanzhou as secretary and Xiao Lei as deputy secretary. The Special Branch included the Yingjia Branch, the Yingjia Rural Branch, and the Yingjia Primary School Branch. The party organizations in Zhaoping and Fujian counties were directly led by Qian Xing. Through these adjustments, the party organizations in each county were strengthened, forming a structure with the Provincial Committee at the center and grassroots party organizations in eastern Guangxi as pillars, while also establishing and improving a security system to safeguard the Provincial Committee headquarters.

With the Provincial Committee’s connection to higher-level organizations severed and facing severe financial difficulties that threatened its survival, they actively engaged in self-reliant production while receiving support from party members of the Yingjia Special Branch. In September 1943, Qian Xing, Zou Bing, and Wu Zanzhi relocated to Niutong, where they cleared land and grew crops, cut grass, and burned lime alongside refugees like Mo Wanshu to secure food supplies. Wu Zanzhi often carried a peddler’s load to villages, raising funds for party activities. Zhuang Yanlin returned to Hong Kong twice to sell family assets, donating all proceeds to the party organization. Xiao Lei, who worked as a temple caretaker, survived on alms collected during the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, while other party members maintained themselves by taking on odd jobs. Despite the extremely harsh and dangerous environment, the Provincial Committee overcame numerous challenges. After more than a year of hardship, the party members who had retreated to the countryside finally gained a foothold and went into concealment.

As the Provincial Committee had lost contact with higher-level party organizations following the severe damage it suffered during the “July 9 Incident,” Qian Xing sought every possible way to re-establish contact. In the spring of 1943, through the connection of Zhang Zhaohan, a secret CCP member at the Eighth Route Army’s Guilin office (Zhang had been Qian Xing’s subordinate when he served as Secretary of the Xiamen Municipal Committee) and with the assistance of Li Yaqun, Secretary of the CCP Guilin Committee, the Provincial Committee achieved indirect contact with the Southern Bureau. In early October 1945, Qian Xing and courier Zhuang Yanlin traveled a long distance to Chongqing, reporting to the Southern Bureau leadership on the work of the Guangxi Provincial Committee since the “Southern Committee Incident” and undergoing review by the Southern Bureau, thereby re-establishing direct contact between the Guangxi Provincial Committee and the Party Central Committee.

In the spring of 1944, Qian Xing organized comrades working around the Provincial Committee headquarters to conduct rectification studies, earnestly summarizing the painful lessons of the “July 9 Incident” in Guilin, the “January 13 Incident” in Yulin, and the “January 15 Incident” in Nanning. He sincerely requested criticism from everyone, took leadership responsibility upon himself, and extended the rectification studies to all parts of the province, providing ideological and political education and revolutionary spirit training to the broad party membership. Through these studies, the atmosphere of unity and cohesion within the party was strengthened, preparing ideologically for the challenges ahead.

On the second anniversary of the “July 9 Incident,” the Provincial Committee secretly organized commemorative activities to strengthen the moral education of party members, calling on them to learn from the noble spirit of martyrdom displayed by comrades Su Man, Luo Wenkun, and Zhang Haiping, who sacrificed heroically for the party and the revolution.

In July 1944, after receiving instructions from the Southern Bureau to “vigorously propagate the party’s anti-Japanese stance, mobilize the masses, organize anti-Japanese armed forces, and establish anti-Japanese guerrilla bases,” the Provincial Committee issued the “August Decision” in August, which called for “everything for the establishment of anti-Japanese armed forces” and “everything for the development of guerrilla warfare.” It urged party organizations across the province to expose the passive resistance and active collaboration of the Guangxi diehards, swiftly mobilize the masses for armed struggle to defend their hometowns against the Japanese, and carry out anti-Japanese guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. The Provincial Committee organized and led over 20 anti-Japanese armed units, involving more than 2,000 members, many of whom were communists playing key roles. These units were active in over 20 counties in Guangxi, killing or injuring approximately 1,000 Japanese and puppet troops, sinking 60 enemy ships, and capturing hundreds of weapons, over 20,000 rounds of ammunition, and large quantities of military supplies. They made significant contributions to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War and laid favorable conditions for the armed struggle during the Liberation War. The most famous of these anti-Japanese armed units was the Guangxi Northeast People’s Anti-Japanese Column—Linyang United Column.

On the eve of Guilin’s fall, a large number of nationally renowned cultural figures and patriotic democrats, including He Xiangning, Liang Shuming, Ouyang Yuqian, Qian Jiayu, and Mo Naiqun, were evacuated from Guilin to Zhaoping, Babu, and other areas, where they actively carried out anti-Japanese salvation activities. The Provincial Committee placed great importance on and supported their work, assisting Ouyang Yuqian with the distribution of the Guangxi Daily (Zhaoping Edition), assigning Lu Mengjian to work as a code clerk at the newspaper office, and having Zhuang Yanlin and Zhu Weixin volunteer for distribution work. They also helped Di Chaobai establish the Guangxi Branch of the Democratic League in Zhaoping and He Lifeng, a progressive democratic figure in Babu, establish the Southeast Branch of the Democratic League. Anti-Japanese efforts in eastern Guangxi flourished.

In August 1945, in accordance with the evolving situation and work needs, the Provincial Committee headquarters gradually relocated from Yingjia to Huangyao in Zhaoping. From October 1942 to August 1945, the Provincial Committee headquarters spent nearly three years in Yingjia, making outstanding contributions to the revolutionary struggle across the province and creating favorable conditions for the subsequent “June 5 Uprising” launched by the eastern Guangxi underground CCP in Yingjia and the liberation of Zhongshan County.

Yantang Town: Yantang Town is located in the western part of Zhongshan County, covering a total area of 101.5 square kilometers. The town government is situated beside National Highway 323, 20 kilometers from the county seat. The town administers 7 village committees and 132 villager groups, with a total population of over 23,100, including more than 22,000 agricultural residents and over 1,100 non-agricultural residents. The arable land area is 19,000 mu, with 4,100 mu of dry land. The main agricultural focus is on high-quality rice cultivation, with cash crops including flue-cured tobacco. Local specialties include Shatian pomelo, navel oranges, plums, waxberries, and fruit sugarcane. Forestry resources mainly consist of pine, fir, and bamboo, while mineral resources include... More details about Yantang Town++