Chongqing Museum of War of Resistance Sites 重庆抗战遗址博物馆

About Chongqing Museum of War of Resistance Sites

In the 1920s Huang Yunjie, comprador of Chongqing's Baili foreign trading firm, bought ground here and built a villa he named Huangjia Garden, also called Huangshan. In the autumn of 1938 the Nationalist Government's Military Affairs Commission moved to Chongqing and Chiang Kai-shek bought the hill from Huang, after which Huangshan became the seat of the government's military, political and diplomatic direction; the district's account also describes it as an important political stage for the second period of cooperation between the Nationalists and the Communists and as a command centre of the Far Eastern theatre of the anti-fascist war. Fifteen sites survive, in an eastern and a western section laid out in a horseshoe along the slope, with a total protected area of 4,053 square metres. Alongside the national listing the site carries designations as a national AAAA-grade tourist scenic area, a national cross-strait exchange base, a national research and practice education base for schools, a Chongqing patriotic education base, and a place in the first group of Chinese Architectural Heritage of the 20th Century.

The buildings are all Republican-period official residences, plain in finish, eclectic in their mixing of Chinese and Western form and shaped to the hillside; the district presents them as evidence for the development of modern architecture in southwest China. They include Yunxiu lou, Chiang Kai-shek's residence; Songting, Song Meiling's villa; Caoting, where Chiang Ching-kuo and Marshall worked and lived; Kongyuan, the villa of the Kong family's second daughter; Lianjing lou, quarters of the American military aid mission to China; Huangshan Primary School, established for the orphaned children of War of Resistance commanders; Yunfeng lou, Song Qingling's villa; and Songlai ge, He Yingqin's office. With them stand the former residence of Zhou Zhirou, an air-raid shelter, the Wangjiang pavilion, Paotai hill, a generator house, a guard room and the attendants' office. The district puts forest cover in the scenic area at 90 per cent and average temperatures 3 to 5 degrees below the city's, and from several high points the outlook takes in the Yuzhong peninsula and the meeting of the two rivers.

What to look for

• Yunxiu lou, Chiang Kai-shek's residence on the hill, and Songting, Song Meiling's villa.
• Caoting, where Chiang Ching-kuo and Marshall worked and lived, and Yunfeng lou, Song Qingling's villa.
• Lianjing lou, which housed the American military aid mission to China, and Songlai ge, He Yingqin's office.
• Huangshan Primary School, set up for the orphaned children of War of Resistance commanders.
• The old trees on the site — white champaca, cherry, osmanthus, sweetgum, ginkgo, deodar and nanmu of a century or close to it — and a cycad more than 380 years old.

Location & getting there

Getting to Chongqing Museum of War of Resistance Sites

Confirm the venue or campus, reservation channel and exhibition calendar. A museum name may cover more than one building.

• Search for 重庆抗战遗址博物馆 with 重庆市 and 南岸区.