Nujiang Hump Route Memorial Hall

　　Nujiang Hump Route Memorial Hall
　　Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture was an important aerial corridor of the "Hump Route." The Nujiang Grand Canyon and the "Stone Moon" were familiar ground navigation landmarks for Hump pilots. According to statistics, from May 1942 to August 1945, when the War of Resistance Against Japan was won, the China-US Air Transport Command flew over the Hump 80,000 times, transporting over 800,000 tons of supplies, ensuring the needs of the war effort in northern Burma and making outstanding contributions to the victory of the war. However, both China and the United States paid a heavy price—609 aircraft were lost, and more than 1,500 pilots sacrificed their lives. Among the 27 planes that crashed within Nujiang Prefecture, there were 7 fighter planes, 17 transport planes, and 3 of unknown types. The C-53 transport plane that crashed in the Gaoligong Mountain Range in Lushui County is the most intact aircraft wreckage remaining on the ground.
　　On March 11, 1943, American pilot Jimmy Fox and Chinese pilots Tan Xuan and Wang Guoliang were flying a China National Aviation Corporation C-53 transport plane from Kunming Wujiaba Airport in China to Dinjan in India. Unfortunately, due to low pressure and strong turbulence, the plane crashed in Pianma Town, Lushui County. In June 1996, the wreckage of the C-53 was discovered by Burmese hunters, and on November 17 of the same year, the Burmese side notified the Chinese side. The Chinese government took this very seriously. The People's Government of Lushui County assigned personnel to guard the wreckage for 540 days. Qu Tiancheng, a young Lisu man, gave his life at the age of 24 while guarding the wreckage. In 1998, with the support of the Yunnan Provincial People's Government, after many efforts by Nujiang Prefecture and Lushui County, on March 30, the C-53 wreckage was divided into three parts and transported to the Pianma Anti-British Memorial Hall in Lushui County for temporary preservation. The People's Government of Nujiang Prefecture set up a commemorative marker at the crash site of the C-53. In 2003, the county Party committee and government decided to raise funds to establish a memorial hall centered on the C-53 wreckage, and also formed a project leadership team for the Nujiang Hump Route Memorial Hall to oversee construction and fund-raising. On July 6, 2004, the China-Nujiang Hump Route Memorial Hall broke ground. The main exhibition building was completed in November 2005 and officially opened to the public on December 21 of the same year, covering a total area of 3,300 m² with a building area of 1,209 m². At the same time, the original form of the C-53 wreckage was restored and displayed.
　　To enrich the exhibition content of the memorial hall and provide visitors with more historical photos, documents, and artifacts, over the years, the county’s cultural relics management department has conducted related artifact collection work in Myanmar, Kunming, and within Nujiang Prefecture, gathering a large number of historical photos, documents, and some aircraft wreckage. The C-53 wreckage is not only a precious cultural relic recording the history of China’s War of Resistance Against Japan and the world’s anti-fascist alliance, but also a historical witness to the peace-loving spirit, solidarity against the enemy, resistance against aggression, and the defense of world peace shared by the peoples of China and the United States. The Nujiang Hump Route Memorial Hall is a significant tribute to the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japan and the global anti-fascist war.
　　The Nujiang Hump Route Memorial Hall is currently the only exhibition hall in China that displays the precious wreckage of a Hump crash and supplements it with detailed photographic materials to comprehensively reflect the joint struggle of the peoples of China and the United States against Japanese fascism, as well as to commemorate the heroic sacrifices of Sino-American pilots along the Hump Route. The American pilot of the CNAC C-53 transport plane, Jimmy Fox (born in 1919, joined the “Hump” transport mission in 1942, and went missing after his plane tragically crashed in Pianma Town, Lushui County, during a Hump mission on March 11, 1943). Personal belongings of the C-53 crew, collected from the public in April 2004.
　　The C-53 wreckage discovered in June 1996 by Burmese hunters in the primeval jungle at an altitude of 3,325 meters, 137 meters from the Chinese side of the China-Myanmar border.
　　The young Lisu man, Qu Tiancheng, who guarded the wreckage (born in 1974, voluntarily joined the wreckage-guarding team in November 1996, and unfortunately sacrificed his life at the age of 24 in a snowstorm on February 28, 1998).
　　Armed police soldiers who guarded the wreckage from November 21, 1996, to May 27, 1998.
　　Transporting the C-53 wreckage (from March to May 27, 1998, from the crash site to the Pianma Anti-British Victory Memorial Hall in Pianma Town. The image shows the transportation process).
　　On November 27, 1997, children from Pianma Town Primary School in Lushui County used 53 leaves from a large tree rhododendron picked near the wreckage to create an airplane model and made a 5.3-meter-long banner as a gift to the San Diego Aerospace Museum in the United States.
　　On February 19, 1998, the special gifts from the children of Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China, commemorating the Hump flight heroes, were formally handed over to the San Diego Aerospace Museum in the United States after a grand ceremony. The gifts are now permanently preserved in the exhibition hall as treasures.
　　On May 28, 1998, the People's Government of Nujiang Prefecture erected the "CNAC C-53 Crash Site Commemorative Marker" at the original crash site.