Geleshan Martyrs Cemetery and Hongyan Historic Sites 歌乐山烈士陵园与红岩旧址群

About Geleshan Martyrs Cemetery and Hongyan Historic Sites

Baigongguan, originally a Sichuan warlord's villa, was bought by Juntong in 1939 as a detention centre; after the Sino-American Cooperative Organization was set up in 1943 its prisoners were moved to the newly built Zhazidong and Baigongguan briefly became a US military guesthouse, before reverting to a special detention centre after 1945 and holding about 200 political prisoners. Zhazidong, a former small coal pit converted into a secret prison in 1938, had 16 male and 2 female cells and held up to 300-plus prisoners at once; in October 1949 prisoners there made their own five-starred flag from a quilt cover and paper stars on hearing of the new national flag, though most were killed before the war's end. On 27 November 1949, three days before Chongqing's liberation, Nationalist agents secretly killed more than 200 revolutionaries held at Zhazidong and Baigongguan, the 11·27 massacre. Two further secret cells lie nearby: Jiangjia Yuanzi, where the New Fourth Army commander Ye Ting was held twice and wrote his poem Song of the Prison Cell before his release in March 1946, and Huangjia Yuanzi, where the veteran Communist Liao Chengzhi was held for over a year before his release in January 1946. On the hill behind Baigongguan, Songlinpo Dai Gong Ci, originally a wartime villa cluster built for Chiang Kai-shek but mainly used by Dai Li and later a memorial hall to him, was used before Chongqing's liberation as a secret execution ground, where Luo Shiwen, Che Yaoxian, Yang Hucheng, his son Yang Zhengzhong and Song Qiyun's family were all killed.

After liberation, the site of the martyrs' tomb, originally a SACO auditorium destroyed by fleeing agents, received the reburied remains of more than 300 martyrs; a tomb and monument were built in 1955, and a 1963 exhibition hall on SACO's crimes restored Baigongguan and Zhazidong to their original appearance. In 1984 a large sculpture called Eternal Righteousness, funded by contributions from millions of Chongqing children together with government money, was unveiled, at which point the site was renamed Chongqing Geleshan Martyrs Cemetery. The main exhibition hall, covering 1,159 square metres and displaying 490 photographs, 108 objects and a panorama painting of the 11·27 massacre, holds the Soul of Red Crag exhibition on the Baigongguan and Zhazidong martyrs alongside six themed exhibitions. The SACO concentration-camp site was declared part of the third group of national key cultural relics protection units by the State Council in 1988, and the cemetery was named a national patriotic-education demonstration base by the CPC Central Propaganda Department in 1997.

What to look for

• The former Baigongguan and Zhazidong prison buildings, the two main Juntong detention sites, with Zhazidong's surviving 16 male and 2 female cells.
• Jiangjia Yuanzi, where Ye Ting wrote his poem Song of the Prison Cell during his imprisonment there.
• Songlinpo Dai Gong Ci, the wartime villa complex turned execution ground where Yang Hucheng and his son, among others, were killed.
• The martyrs' tomb and the 1984 sculpture Eternal Righteousness, marking the reburial of more than 300 martyrs.
• The main exhibition hall's Soul of Red Crag display and its six themed exhibitions, covering 1,159 square metres of photographs, objects and the 11·27 massacre panorama.

Location & getting there

Getting to Geleshan Martyrs Cemetery and Hongyan Historic Sites

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 歌乐山烈士陵园与红岩旧址群 with 重庆市 and 沙坪坝区.