Memorial Hall of the "Ten Thousand People Pit" at Datong Coal Mine

Memorial Hall of the "Ten Thousand People Pit" at Datong Coal Mine

The Memorial Hall of the "Ten Thousand People Pit" at Datong Coal Mine is a key cultural relics protection unit, a classic red tourism site, and a patriotic education base.

The Memorial Hall of the "Ten Thousand People Pit" at Datong Coal Mine is a national patriotic education base and a key cultural relics protection unit in China. During World War II, after Japanese invaders occupied the Datong Coal Mine, they frantically plundered coal resources. Under their bloody rule of "exchanging people for coal," large numbers of miners who were tortured to death or left barely alive were thrown into barren hills, wild fields, and abandoned mine shafts, forming over 20 "Ten Thousand People Pits" littered with bones across the Datong mining area. Among them, the "Ten Thousand People Pit" located in the Nangou area of Meiyukou is currently one of the most intact and largest such sites preserved in China.

The Memorial Hall of the "Ten Thousand People Pit" site covers an area of 337,000 square meters and is divided into different sections, including the Suffering Exhibition Area, Cultural Relics Protection Area, and Coal Mining History Exhibition Area. Major structures include exhibition halls, folded-plate corridors, multimedia demonstration rooms, the "Ten Thousand People Pit" Memorial Hall, and the Forest of Wordless Stone Tablets. From the entrance to the exhibition hall, eight cast iron plates inscribed with "1937-1945" are deeply embedded in the surrounding floor tiles along the gentle slope, serving as a solemn reminder of the profound suffering endured by Datong miners during the eight-year war. Below the entrance hall of the memorial, a large relief sculpture of human remains is displayed, along with two raised sets of numbers—"14,000,000" and "60,000"—which visually convey that over eight years of Japanese occupation of the Datong Coal Mine, 14 million tons of high-quality coal were looted and 60,000 miners lost their lives.

The memorial is themed around "Remember history, cherish peace, face the future, and revitalize China." It is divided into six major sections: "Coveting Mineral Resources, a Long-Planned Scheme," "Poisoning Datong, Seizing the Coal Mines," "Barbaric Mining, Frantic Plundering," "Enslaving Miners, Utterly Inhumane," "Piles of Bones, Ironclad Evidence," and "Remember History, Cherish Peace." Featuring a wealth of precious photos and physical materials, the exhibition uses various modern technological methods—such as background sculptures, holographic imaging, multimedia technology, and scene recreations enhanced with sound, light, and electricity—to vividly and profoundly expose the heinous crimes committed by Japanese invaders at the Datong Coal Mine during World War II. It serves as a solemn reminder for the Chinese people to remember the suffering of history and strive unceasingly for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Address: No. 1 Jianxin Street, Meiyukou Coal Mine, Datong Coal Mine, Datong, Shanxi

Further Reading:

· Sixth Batch of Key Cultural Relics Protection Units in China