Huining Red Army Reunion Site 会宁红军会师旧址

About Huining Red Army Reunion Site

Huining Red Army Reunion Site (会宁红军会师旧址) is a group of historic buildings and memorials on Huishi South Road (会师南路) in Huishi Town (会师镇), Huining County (会宁县), Baiyin (白银), Gansu, marking where the three main Red Army forces met at the end of the Long March in October 1936.

In October 1936 the First, Second and Fourth Front Armies of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (中国工农红军) came together in the Huining area, a meeting that Chinese histories treat as the close of the Long March (长征). On 2 October a special detachment from the cavalry regiment of the 15th Corps (十五军团) seized the county town's west gate, Xijin Gate (西津门). On 8 October the Fourth Front Army's vanguard reached Jieshipu (界石铺) in the county and joined the First Corps' 1st Division, and the next day Xu Xiangqian (徐向前) led his troops into Huining. On the evening of 10 October more than 200 commanders and nearly a thousand soldiers and local people held a reunion rally, where Zhu De (朱德) read out the Party Central Committee's telegram celebrating the union of the three armies.

The protected area covers 40,000 square metres. The Reunion Tower (会师楼) is the old west gate tower of the county town, first built in 1373: a two-storey timber tower with a hip-and-gable roof over a brick arched gateway, set in rammed-earth walls. Party leaders held a meeting in the gate tower at the time, which is why it was later turned into the Reunion Tower. The rally took place in the Dacheng Hall (大成殿) of the Confucian Temple (文庙), first built in 1500. The Reunion Monument (会师纪念塔), put up in October 1986 with its name written by Deng Xiaoping (邓小平), is three nine-storey towers that merge into one at the tenth storey, a reference to the meeting on 10 October; the eleventh storey caps the monument and stands for the eleven provinces the marchers crossed. The Forest of Steles of Marshals and Generals (将帅碑林), built in 1996, holds more than 300 inscriptions by commanders cut in stone.

Also within the site are the former Red Army General Headquarters, the General Political Department, the command posts of the Fourth Front Army and the First Corps, and the lodgings of Zhu De, Zhang Guotao (张国焘) and Xu Xiangqian. An exhibition hall of revolutionary relics and a memorial hall for fallen Red Army soldiers complete the group. The State Council published the site in the fourth batch of national key protected heritage sites (全国重点文物保护单位) on 20 November 1996, and Gansu's register of graded tourist sites lists it as a 4A scenic area.

What to look for

• Reunion Tower (会师楼), the county town's west gate tower, first built in 1373
• Dacheng Hall of the Confucian Temple (文庙大成殿), first built in 1500, where the reunion rally was held on 10 October 1936
• Reunion Monument (会师纪念塔), three nine-storey towers merging into one, built in 1986
• Forest of Steles of Marshals and Generals (将帅碑林), more than 300 carved inscriptions, built in 1996
• Former Red Army General Headquarters and General Political Department
• Former lodgings of Zhu De, Zhang Guotao and Xu Xiangqian
• Exhibition hall of revolutionary relics (革命文物陈列馆) and the Red Army martyrs' memorial hall (红军烈士纪念堂)

Location & getting there

Getting to Huining Red Army Reunion Site

• Search for 会宁红军会师旧址 with 白银市 and 会宁县.