Former Residence of Peng Zhen in Houma

Former Residence of Peng Zhen in Houma

The Former Residence of Peng Zhen in Houma is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction, a cultural relics protection unit of Shanxi Province, and a patriotic education base.

Comrade Peng Zhen was a great proletarian revolutionary, statesman, outstanding states activist, staunch Marxist, a principal founder of China’s socialist legal system, and an eminent leader of the Party and the country.

The former residence of Peng Zhen is located in Dieshang Village, Houma City, Shanxi Province. On October 12, 1902, Comrade Peng Zhen was born in two cave dwellings on Xigou in Dieshang Village. The cave dwellings face east and sit west. Inside, apart from an earthen kang (heated bed), a stove, and a few simple wooden pieces of furniture, there was nothing else.

Comrade Peng Zhen was originally named Fu Maogong. He lived and grew up in this residence for 19 years. At the age of 7, he began helping his father in the fields and assisting his mother with spinning thread. At 12, he attended a private school for a few days. At 17, he was admitted to the then Qiwu County Second Higher Primary School. Influenced by the May Fourth New Culture Movement, Peng Zhen began to develop anti-imperialist and anti-feudal patriotic ideas. He was elected as the propaganda team leader by fellow students, leading them in street campaigns advocating bans on smoking, gambling, foot-binding, and foreign goods—early signs of his remarkable organizational and leadership skills. In 1922, he left his hometown of Houma to enroll in the First Provincial High School of Shanxi and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1923. From then on, he bid farewell to his hometown and devoted himself to the great proletarian revolutionary cause.

Due to years of disrepair, by the 1980s, the century-old cave dwelling that had housed five generations of the Fu family showed cracks in its roof, parts of the structure were beginning to collapse, and rainwater leaked inside. To protect this revolutionary heritage site, the Houma municipal government carried out minor renovations. In 2002, on the 100th anniversary of Peng Zhen's birth, the Houma government renovated the residence again and erected a half-length bronze statue of Peng Zhen in front of it. Today, the former residence of Peng Zhen has become a patriotic education base where people pay tribute to the great achievements and noble spirit of the eminent leader. In 2003, the residence was designated as a provincial-level cultural relics protection unit and a Shanxi Provincial Patriotic Education Base. Over the past three years, it has received over 20,000 visitors.

Tel: 0357-4223946

Address: Houma City, Linfen, Shanxi Province

Peng Zhen (1902–1997) was from Quwo, Shanxi. During the New Democratic Revolution period, Peng Zhen long led the work of the Party in northern China. On December 5, 1936, under Peng Zhen’s direct leadership, representatives of anti-Japanese salvation groups from Beiping (now Beijing), Tianjin, Taiyuan, Xi’an, Guisui (now Hohhot), Baoding, and Luoyang held the founding conference of the North China Salvation Federation in Tianjin. After the full outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in July 1937, around July 20, Peng Zhen informed Lin Feng, secretary to Liu Shaoqi who was working in Beiping, to arrange the withdrawal of the Beiping Party... More details about Peng Zhen ++

Further Reading:

· Fourth Batch of Cultural Relics Protection Units in Shanxi Province