Old Barracks Site of the Eight-Nation Alliance in Shanhaiguan

Old Barracks Site of the Eight-Nation Alliance in Shanhaiguan

The Old Barracks Site of the Eight-Nation Alliance in Shanhaiguan is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The historic and cultural city of Shanhaiguan has long been world-renowned for its Shanhai Great Wall. What’s lesser known is that this place preserves the largest and most intact complex of old barracks of the Eight-Nation Alliance still existing in China.

In 1900, after occupying Beijing, the Eight-Nation Alliance launched attacks on strategic locations around the capital, with their sights set on the strategically vital Shanhaiguan east of the capital. The allied forces numbered over 6,200 troops, and a joint fleet from the foreign powers landed along the coast at Laolongtou in Shanhaiguan. The defending Qing soldiers put up resistance at Laolongtou, but the Chenghai Tower was destroyed. They retreated along the Great Wall to Jiukoukou only after Beijing fell. The following year, the Qing government signed the humiliating Boxer Protocol with the foreign powers, allowing them to station troops along the Beijing–Shanhaiguan railway. Starting in 1902, the foreign powers successively built camps along the southern coast of Shanhaiguan. A “Six-Nation Hotel” was constructed south of Shanhaiguan Railway Station specifically to accommodate foreigners, and a horse-drawn small railway was built to connect the hotel to the various foreign barracks. From then on, Shanhaiguan’s coastal defense came entirely under foreign control, and it wasn’t until after World War II that they finally withdrew.

The Six-Nation Barracks were located in the western and northern parts of Laolongtou, covering a total area of 9 square kilometers. There are over 40 existing buildings with a total floor space of more than 30,000 square meters. Built between 1903 and 1904, these were the barracks and villas constructed by the six nations—Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Russia—that invaded and occupied Shanhaiguan during the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion of China. Among them, the French barracks have the largest number of surviving structures, with 14 buildings including officer quarters, soldier barracks, family housing, a bakery, an armory, and a detention room, essentially forming a “mini society.” According to local elders, this site was once the camp of Ye Zhichao from the late Qing Dynasty. Ye Zhichao established a military training school there. Many warlords from the early Republican period, such as Wang Shizhen, Tian Zhongyu, Bao Guiqing, and Lu Yongxiang, were graduates of this school. There is also a Six-Nation Hotel, with a floor space of over 2,000 square meters. The building is a T-shaped two-story structure: the western half of the first floor housed guest rooms, while the eastern half was a dining hall; the second floor included a ballroom and storage rooms, making it a comprehensive entertainment venue where the six-nation soldiers sought leisure. Only one “General’s Building” remains in the Japanese barracks. Research indicates that the “Yuguan Incident,” which the Japanese invading forces used as a pretext to launch a full-scale incursion into China in 1933, was commanded from this building—thus marking the first shots of the Great Wall Resistance War by the Chinese people. The Japanese barracks also contained water prisons and dry prisons used to detain anti-Japanese civilians.

In 2006, it was designated as part of the sixth group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of Hebei Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Sixth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units