Liberation Monument and Bayi Street 解放碑与八一街

About Liberation Monument and Bayi Street

The monument was first raised on 12 March 1940, the anniversary of Sun Yat-sen's death, and completed at the end of 1941 as the 'Spiritual Fortress', built to encourage the Chinese people to keep fighting the war of resistance. After victory it was renamed the 'Victory Monument to the War of Resistance', and in 1950 Liu Bocheng gave it its present name, the 'Chongqing People's Liberation Monument'. It is an octagonal-column, helmet-topped reinforced-concrete structure facing north-north-east, 27.5 metres tall with 2.55-metre sides, eight storeys including a basement level and a spiral stair running to the top, with self-ringing clocks facing the streets on all four sides at the top and flower beds around its base. After Chongqing became a directly administered municipality in 1997, retail, entertainment, dining, hotel and financial businesses gathered in growing numbers around the monument, and the area's identity as the 'Jiefangbei Central Business District' took shape; the monument itself is now described as one of Chongqing's ten cultural symbols.

Bayi Haochi Jie is a snack-food street immediately beside Jiefangbei and Hongyadong. In 2019 it was one of 38 streets across 30 Chinese cities named a 'must-eat street' in Meituan Dianping's first such national ranking. The report separately records that in recent years the street has consolidated its mix of vendors and broadened its range of foods, bringing together Chongqing specialities and well-known dishes from elsewhere in the country.

What to look for

• The monument itself, an octagonal reinforced-concrete column with a helmet-shaped top, its four-faced self-ringing clocks visible from the surrounding streets.
• The spiral stair inside the monument, running from the basement to the top across its eight storeys.
• Bayi Haochi Jie, the snack-food street beside Jiefangbei, named a national 'must-eat street' by Meituan Dianping in 2019.

Location & getting there

Getting to Liberation Monument and Bayi Street

Choose a precise starting address and return transport stop. Access to individual buildings, performances or viewing platforms is separate from access to public streets.

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