Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Capital Revolutionary Museum 鄂豫皖苏区首府革命博物馆

About Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Capital Revolutionary Museum

Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Capital Revolutionary Museum (鄂豫皖苏区首府革命博物馆) is a museum in Xin County (新县), Xinyang (信阳), in the Dabie Mountains (大别山) of Henan. It tells the story of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui (E-Yu-Wan, 鄂豫皖) revolutionary base area, whose capital was in this county.

Its roots are a martyrs' memorial hall that Xin County opened in 1958. In 1979 the county Party committee cleared a few of that hall's rooms for a display of local revolutionary history, but the space could not hold the relics left from the base-area years. The Henan provincial Party committee and government approved and paid for a purpose-built museum: work began on 25 October 1985, the building was finished on 22 December 1987, and it opened on 25 October 1990, with a name board written by former state president Li Xiannian (李先念). Refurbished, it reopened on 17 May 2002, and in 2017 the China Museums Association (中国博物馆协会) put it in the third batch of national first-grade museums.

The Henan Cultural Relics Bureau calls it the province's largest county-level revolutionary museum. It stands on the east side of the hill town, a modern building in traditional style with red eaves and orange tiles, on a 21,000 m² site. Seven halls hold 828 m² of displays. The main exhibition covers the base area's ten years of Land Revolution in an entrance hall and four rooms, from the founding of the base to its guerrilla war. A second display profiles 43 Xin County natives who were made generals and 50 cadres of provincial or army rank; Xinhua describes Xin County as a well-known "county of generals" and the birthplace of the Red Fourth Front Army, the 25th Red Army and the 28th Red Army.

The provincial listing counts 407 revolutionary relics. Among them is a grade-one relic: a text of the Land Law Outline of the Chinese Soviet Republic written on a wall. Other holdings include Red Army flags, broadswords, spears and guns, Party and government reports and leaflets, soviet seals, coins, tax receipts and land certificates. For the Party's centenary in 2021, the membership card of General Chen Bo (陈波), a native of what is now Xin County, was moved from this museum to the Communist Party of China History Exhibition Hall.

What to look for

• The wall-written Land Law Outline of the Chinese Soviet Republic (中华苏维埃土地法大纲), a grade-one revolutionary relic
• The Lenin (列宁号), displayed as the first aircraft of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army
• A sound-and-light reconstruction of the Red Army taking Xin County, shown at the 2002 reopening
• The gallery on 43 generals born in Xin County and 50 senior cadres
• Soviet-era seals, coins, tax receipts and land certificates from the base area
• The museum's name board, written by Li Xiannian

Location & getting there

Getting to Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Capital Revolutionary Museum

• Search for 鄂豫皖苏区首府革命博物馆 with 信阳市 and 新县.