Songlinpo Ruins Cluster

　　Songlinpo is situated on the hill behind the Bai Mansion Detention Center and is named for the many pine trees covering the area. During the War of Resistance against Japan, to escape the summer heat and air raids, Dai Li constructed a group of villas here for Chiang Kai-shek. However, Chiang rarely visited; the place was mainly used by Dai Li himself. Historical relics and sites at this location include the Memorial Temple of Dai, Dai Li’s Reception Room, Dai Li’s Guard Room, a parking lot, the tomb of martyrs Luo Shiwen and Che Yaoxian, as well as the mass grave at the Songlinpo Execution Ground. On the eve of Chongqing’s liberation, this site served as an execution ground for revolutionaries held in the concentration camp. Revolutionary figures such as Luo Shiwen, Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Committee, Che Yaoxian, a member of the Military Affairs Commission of the Western Sichuan Special Committee, General Yang Hucheng—one of the instigators of the Xi’an Incident, Song Qiyun and his wife—editors-in-chief of the Northwest Culture Daily, along with their young son “Little Radish Head”—all perished here. On November 27 and 29, during the large-scale executions, nearly fifty revolutionaries imprisoned at the Zhazidong Detention Center and the Xinshijie Detention Center in the urban area were killed here. The site now houses the “Memorial Hall of General Yang Hucheng,” the “Exhibition on the Prison Lives of Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng,” the “Song Qiyun Family Exhibition,” the “Raising High the Banner to Save the People – Exhibition on the Deeds of Luo Shiwen and Che Yaoxian,” as well as a memorial forest of steles inscribed with poems and writings by the martyrs.

　　Source: Chongqing Hongyan Cultural Development Management Center Author: Liu Liqun