Anyuan District 安源区

History

The district was formed in March 1971 as Chengguan District (城关区) of Pingxiang and took the name Anyuan in May 1993. Historically the area was called "throat of Wu and Chu, thoroughfare between Jiangxi and Hunan".

In the 1920s the Anyuan coal mine and the Zhuzhou–Pingxiang railway (株萍铁路) together employed more than 10,000 workers. Because Anyuan lies where Jiangxi meets Hunan, its labour movement then came under the Hunan branch of the Communist Party; Mao Zedong (毛泽东) came in autumn 1921 and went down the mine, and Li Lisan (李立三) opened a workers' night school in January 1922. The Anyuan Road and Mine Workers' Club (安源路矿工人俱乐部) was founded in May 1922. In September, when the railway and mine authorities withheld long-overdue wages, close to 20,000 workers struck under Li Lisan as commander and Liu Shaoqi (刘少奇) as the club's representative; on 18 September the authorities signed a 13-point agreement. The 1968 oil painting Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan (毛主席去安源) by Liu Chunhua (刘春华) was printed more than 900 million times.

What to see

The Anyuan Coal Miners Memorial (安源路矿工人运动纪念馆) stands halfway up Niuxingling (牛形岭) at Victory Square (胜利广场) in Anyuan town. First opened in 1956 in the old club building, it moved into its present exhibition hall in 1969: a two-storey block 24 metres high and 100 metres long, its marble-columned front flanked by the words "A single spark can start a prairie fire" in cast-metal characters from Mao's calligraphy. It holds more than 5,100 relics, and in 2017 the Chinese Museums Association rated it a national first-grade museum.

The memorial also runs 14 sites where Mao, Liu Shaoqi and Li Lisan worked. The Main Level Adit (总平巷), a red-brick gateway about 6 metres high built in 1898, was the mine's main entrance, and the 1922 strike began there. Shenggong Temple (盛公祠), a three-storey German-style building of 1898 on a hilltop, was named after Sheng Xuanhuai (盛宣怀) of the Hanyeping Company after his death in 1916. Both became national key cultural relics protection units in 2013. The later Workers' Club at Banbianjie (半边街), finished on 1 May 1924 and built with workers' donations, has a lecture hall with 800 seats.

Getting oriented

The Shanghai–Kunming railway and the Shanghai–Kunming high-speed line cross the district from east to west, and Pingxiang Station on the conventional line is in Anyuan. Anyuan town, where the memorial stands, is about 6 kilometres southeast of the Pingxiang city centre.

Highlights

• Anyuan Coal Miners Memorial 安源路矿工人运动纪念馆: Museum of the 1922 strike on Niuxingling, rated a national first-grade museum in 2017.
• Main Level Adit 总平巷: 1898 red-brick mine entrance where the 1922 strike began.
• Shenggong Temple 盛公祠: German-style mine office of 1898 named after Sheng Xuanhuai.
• Anyuan Road and Mine Workers' Club 安源路矿工人俱乐部旧址: Club building at Banbianjie finished in 1924 with an 800-seat lecture hall.