The Spirit of Sanyuan

The Spirit of Sanyuan

The Spirit of Sanyuan site includes historical relics such as the Museum of the Sanyuanli People’s Anti-British Struggle (Sanyuan Ancient Temple), the Anti-British Struggle Monument, and the Niulangang Ancient Battlefield, all commemorating the glorious history of the 1841 Sanyuanli people’s resistance against the British. In 1961, Sanyuan Ancient Temple was designated by the State Council as the first national cultural relic protection unit in China, and it is a patriotic education base at the national, provincial, municipal, and district levels.

In June 1840, Britain launched the Opium War against China. On May 29 of the following year, a British plundering party raided the Sanyuanli area, assaulting local women. Villagers from 103 nearby towns banded together to form an anti-invasion militia, successfully repelling the British troops and killing over 200 of them in a major victory that marked a glorious chapter in China’s modern revolutionary history. In November 1958, the site of Sanyuan Ancient Temple—where the Sanyuanli people fought the British and which was originally a Taoist temple built in the early Qing Dynasty dedicated to the God of the North—was turned into the Exhibition Hall of Historical Materials on the Sanyuanli People’s Anti-British Struggle. A monument stands on the hill at the village entrance, inscribed with:

“Eternal glory to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the 1841 struggle of the people of Guangdong at Sanyuanli against the aggression of British imperialism.”

Today, the historical sites reflecting the Sanyuanli people’s anti-British struggle include the Museum of the Sanyuanli People’s Anti-British Struggle (Sanyuan Ancient Temple)—one of the first batch of key national cultural relic protection units—the Donghuali Gate Tower, and the Niulangang site, the main battlefield of the struggle. Together, they form an important symbol of Guangzhou’s modern revolutionary history.