Former Residence of Bai

Bai Residence

The Bai Residence is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The former site of the Bai Residence prison is located at the foot of Nanshan on Songlinpo in Geleshan, situated midway up the mountain with a rugged terrain. Built in the 1930s, the Bai Residence is a structure made of earthen bricks and wood, with a total floor area of 1,131 square meters. It was originally a suburban villa owned by Bai Ju, a warlord from Sichuan. In 1939, Dai Li, the head of the military intelligence agency (Juntong), personally came to Geleshan to select a site. Impressed by this location, he purchased it with a large sum of money by force and converted it into a detention center. From then on, the main gate remained closed year-round, and access was made through a side entrance. The original living quarters were turned into prison cells, a dark underground storage room became a dungeon, and an air-raid shelter was repurposed as an interrogation chamber. In 1943, with the establishment of the Sino-American Cooperative Organization, the Bai Residence was converted into a third guesthouse for American personnel in China, and all detained individuals were transferred to Zhazidong. It wasn’t until 1945, after the withdrawal of the Sino-American Cooperative Organization, that the Bai Residence resumed its role as a detention facility. After the withdrawal, it also served as a detention center for collaborators, holding major figures such as Zhou Fohai. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Bai Residence functioned as a special detention center. In the spring of 1947, detainees from Zhazidong were moved back to the Bai Residence. Those held here were considered political prisoners involved in “serious cases,” such as General Huang Xiansheng, a patriotic anti-Japanese military leader; the Communist Party members Song Qiyun and his wife along with their young son “Little Radish Head”; Zhou Junshi, president of Tongji University; Chen Ran, the real-life inspiration for the character “Cheng Gang” in the novel Red Crag; Liu Guozhi, the inspiration for “Liu Siyang”; and others. At its peak, the number of detainees reached over 100. On November 27, 1949, Juntong agents secretly transported the revolutionaries held at the Bai Residence to Songlinpo in batches and carried out a brutal massacre, with only 19 managing to escape. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Bai Residence became a management center for reforming former Kuomintang war criminals. Ironically, Xu Yuanju, one of the main planners of the massacre and a Kuomintang Juntong agent, was also held here.

The former site of the Bai Residence prison is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.