Yunnan Military Academy History Museum 云南陆军讲武堂历史博物馆

About Yunnan Military Academy History Museum

The academy formally opened on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of 1909 on a site of about 70,000 square metres, with students grouped into three classes by origin, and by 1910 offered instruction in infantry, cavalry, artillery and engineering. Zhu De was admitted to the infantry class in September 1910, was then selected into the special artillery class, and in September 1911 was assigned as a company sergeant in the 19th brigade; on 30 October that year he and other Academy staff and students took part in the Double-Ninth Kunming Uprising of the 1911 Revolution. The overseas Chinese youth Ye Weiyi, later known as Ye Jianying, was admitted to the Academy's 12th class in 1917 and graduated with honours from the artillery branch in December 1919; he became a formal member of the Communist Party in July 1927. The museum holds Ye Jianying's graduation certificate, which the provincial people's congress portal calls the museum's prize exhibit. The academy trained more than 9,000 students in all, among them the future chairman of the DPRK's Supreme People's Assembly Standing Committee, Choe Yong-gon, and South Korea's first prime minister and defence minister, Lee Beom-seok.

The academy's surviving main building, a corner-turret veranda structure of earth, wood, brick and stone, was built between 1917 and 1918 to a floor area of about 7,800 square metres on a site of about 14,800 square metres, made up of four two-storey ranges each about 120 metres long enclosing a courtyard, and is described as a fusion of modern Chinese and Western architectural styles. Other surviving structures include an auditorium, an armoury, a washroom and a screen wall. After Yunnan's liberation, Chen Geng, commander of the Second Field Army's Fourth Corps, chose the old site to open a people's military school in February 1950, and the Second Field Army Military-Political University's Fourth Branch was established there the following month.

What to look for

• The main quadrangle building of 1917-1918, its four two-storey ranges of earth, wood, brick and stone enclosing a courtyard.
• Ye Jianying's graduation certificate from the Academy's 12th class, held by the museum.
• The auditorium, armoury, washroom and screen wall that survive alongside the main building.

Location & getting there

Getting to Yunnan Military Academy History Museum

Confirm the venue or campus, reservation channel and exhibition calendar. A museum name may cover more than one building.

• Search for 云南陆军讲武堂历史博物馆 with 昆明市 and 五华区.