Site of the Eighth Route Army Taiyuan Office

Site of the Eighth Route Army Taiyuan Office

The Site of the Eighth Route Army Taiyuan Office is a cultural tourism attraction and a classic red tourism site.

The Site of the Eighth Route Army Taiyuan Office is located on Banling South Street in Xinghualing District. On May 25, 1936, Mao Zedong wrote a letter to Yan Xishan, proposing a joint effort between the Chinese Communist Party and Yan to resist Japanese aggression and oppose Chiang Kai-shek, as well as the establishment of a united front. He also sent Red Army general Peng Xuefeng to Taiyuan to conduct secret negotiations with Yan Xishan. Upon arriving in Taiyuan, Peng was accompanied by Nan Hanchen to meet with Yan Xishan and delivered Mao’s handwritten letter. After discussions, both parties agreed that the Red Army would establish a secret liaison office in Taiyuan, with the office located at No. 6 in the backyard of the “Young Men’s Christian Association” inside Shouyi Gate. In March 1937, with Yan Xishan’s approval, Peng Xuefeng set up a radio station at No. 30 Xinmancheng Street, where all staff members posed as a family and referred to the place externally as “Peng’s Residence.” When the CCP’s Northern Bureau relocated to Taiyuan, figures such as Liu Shaoqi and Yang Shangkun also stayed temporarily at the liaison office on Xinmancheng Street No. 30. On August 25, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued the order to reorganize the Red Army into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army. To adapt to the new situation of the Eighth Route Army soon heading to the front lines of the War of Resistance, the liaison office moved at the end of August to No. 8 Chengcheng Middle School on Banling South Street in Taiyuan. On August 30, the signboard of the “Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army Taiyuan Office” was officially hung. The CCP’s liaison work in Taiyuan thus entered a legitimate and public phase as the Taiyuan Office of the Eighth Route Army. The CCP’s Northern Bureau and the Shanxi Provincial Committee once conducted secret operations here. On November 5, on the eve of the fall of Taiyuan, the CCP representatives and the Eighth Route Army Office evacuated Taiyuan and relocated to Linfen. In 2003, the original site of the Eighth Route Army Office was damaged, and now only three remaining east-wing bungalows are left.