Gaogang District 高港区

Setting and landscape

The district lies on the alluvial plain of the Yangtze delta. Hailing District (海陵区) adjoins it to the north, Jiangyan District (姜堰区) and Taixing (泰兴市) to the east, and Jiangdu District (江都区) of Yangzhou to the west.

History

Gaogang became a trading port in 1909, when Gao Shengfu (高生甫) and other local men put up sheds for the Yihe, Hong'an and Ningshao steamship companies. On 23 April 1949 the navy of the East China Military Region was founded at Baimamiao (白马庙), where the eastern command for the Third Field Army's Yangtze crossing was based, with Zhang Aiping (张爱萍) as its commander and political commissar. In 1989 the Central Military Commission fixed that date as the birthday of the People's Liberation Army Navy.

What to see

The founding site in Baima town (白马镇) is a national key cultural relic site. The command post was in the study tower of a landlord estate known as Husanfang (湖三房), where Su Yu (粟裕) arrived with the Third Field Army staff on the night of 4 April 1949; items he used, including a carved wooden bed and a telegraph set, are displayed there. The PLA Navy Birthplace Memorial (中国人民解放军海军诞生地纪念馆), opened in April 1999, combines this site with a navy exhibition hall shaped like a warship. Its prize exhibit is a 13-metre wooden boat that took part in the 1949 Yangtze crossing, collected from Yong'anzhou (永安洲) in Gaogang and graded a first-class national relic. The square outside holds retired naval aircraft.

In Kou'an itself, the Kou'an carved building (口岸雕花楼), a Qing building on Xiangyang Branch Road, has been a Jiangsu provincial protected site since 2002. Two more buildings were added to the provincial list in 2019: the Ming-period Qi family house on Jiefang Street (解放街戚氏宅) and the Qing trading house of Li Xinchang (李信昌过载行). The city list adds the Ming Kou'an City God Temple (口岸城隍庙), also on Jiefang Street.

Highlights

• PLA Navy Birthplace Memorial 中国人民解放军海军诞生地纪念馆: Memorial at Baima town, where the East China navy was founded on 23 April 1949.
• Kou'an carved building 口岸雕花楼: Qing building, Jiangsu provincial protected site since 2002.
• Qi family house, Jiefang Street 解放街戚氏宅: Ming house added to the Jiangsu protected list in 2019.
• Kou'an City God Temple 口岸城隍庙: Ming temple on Jiefang Street, a Taizhou city protected site.