Yishou Nunnery

　　   Yishou Nunnery is the former headquarters of the Youth Service Corps of the Hong Kong Student Relief Association, located on Xiguan Road in Gaozhou. The nunnery was originally a temple structure built during the Ming Dynasty, with a total depth of 37.31 meters and a width of 21.32 meters. The front hall is a two-story pavilion-style building, with the three large characters “Yishou Nunnery” (益寿庵) in grey relief carved above the entrance. The couplets on either side of the door read “Benefit all above and below” (益上益下) and “Longevity for the nation and its people” (寿国寿民).

　　   After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, at the end of 1938, the Southeast Guangdong Special Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, under the name of the Hong Kong Student Relief Association, dispatched a service corps primarily composed of Party members and established with a special branch to carry out activities in southern Guangdong. The corps headquarters was stationed at Yishou Nunnery on Xiguan Road in Gaozhou.

　　   The service corps had over 20 members. Under the leadership of Captain Liu Tanfeng, work teams were dispatched successively to places such as Xiecun, Tangkou, Banqiao, Fenjie, Genzi, Shatian, and Yuntan. Through activities such as operating night schools, teaching songs, and performing plays, they promoted revolutionary ideals, mobilized the masses to resist Japan, developed Party organizations, and established the Pearl and Qishui Party branches in Yuntan. At the same time, within the Officer Training Corps organized by Zhang Yan—a patriotic anti-Japanese general from the former 19th Route Army—Communist Party cells were established.

　　   In the summer of 1939, the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the CCP sent Zhou Nan to Gaozhou to establish the Gao-Lei Working Committee, whose office was also located at Yishou Nunnery. In January 1940, the Gao-Lei Working Committee was renamed the Southern Road Special Committee, with its headquarters remaining at the same location.

　　   In May 1940, Chiang Kai-shek launched the first wave of anti-communist suppression after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, which also affected Guangdong. The Youth Service Corps of the Hong Kong Student Relief Association subsequently ceased its activities and withdrew from Gaozhou.