Memorial Park of the Red Army's Long March Crossing of the Xiang River Martyrs

Memorial Park of the Red Army's Long March Crossing of the Xiang River Martyrs

The Memorial Park of the Red Army's Long March Crossing of the Xiang River Martyrs is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction, a classic red tourism site, and a patriotic education base.

In late November 1934, the Central Red Army reached the Hunan-Guangxi border during the Long March. Chiang Kai-shek concentrated 300,000 troops and set up what was dubbed the “Iron Triangle,” the fourth blockade line, to the east of the Xiang River in northern Guangxi. After seven days and nights of bloody battle and at the cost of over half their forces, the Red Army soldiers finally broke through the Xiang River defense line and continued northward to resist the Japanese. Upon the suggestion of Marshal Nie Rongzhen and approval by the State Council, the Memorial Park of the Red Army's Long March Crossing of the Xiang River Martyrs was built in Xing’an County, Guilin, Guangxi in 1993, and officially opened to the public in January 1996.

The memorial park is located on Lion Mountain in Xing’an County, covering an area of 100,000 square meters. Its main commemorative structures include a large group sculpture, a memorial monument, an exhibition hall, a sculpture of martyrs from Western Fujian, and the Integrity Stone Garden. An under-construction project includes a new exhibition hall for the Battle of the Xiang River and a pavilion for the martyrs of the battle. The group sculpture, carved from grayish-white granite, is 46 meters long and 11 meters high, consisting of four giant busts and five sets of reliefs. It artistically recreates the heroic scene of the Red Army breaking through the Kuomintang’s fourth blockade line. The 34-meter-high memorial monument stands atop Lion Mountain. Its upper part features three rifles pointing straight into the sky, symbolizing the truth that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun,” while the lower part is a circular arched pavilion. The monument and the group sculpture are connected by a flight of 184 steps with four turns along a single path — the steep stairs symbolize the tortuous journey of the Central Red Army’s breakthrough of the Xiang River line. The exhibition hall is situated at the northern foot of Lion Mountain. Inside, it displays military models of the Battle of the Xiang River, route maps of the Red Army’s journey through Guangxi, inscriptions by central leaders, and some physical relics of the Red Army.

In June 1997, the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China listed the memorial park as one of the first hundred “National Patriotic Education Demonstration Bases.” In 2010, the park received 100,000 visitors for the whole year, and in 2011, it welcomed 200,000 visitors annually. The memorial park has now become one of the country’s important red tourism destinations.