Malan Revolutionary Site 马栏革命旧址

About Malan Revolutionary Site

The sub-district organs moved to Malan village at the end of 1941, lodging with local families at first and then digging more than 300 cave dwellings; 375 cave dwellings survive at the site today. In December 1942 the CPC Northwest Central Bureau merged the Shaanxi Provincial Committee with the Guanzhong sub-committee into a Guanzhong prefectural committee, which was founded the following January with its organs still at Malan town. The CPC Shaanxi Provincial working committee was founded in January 1946, also with its organs at Malan town in Xunyi County, and in April 1949 the Guanzhong prefectural committee became the Sanyuan prefectural committee, which the source counts as the end of the sub-district's twelve years.

Between 1942 and 1944 soldiers and civilians of the sub-district gathered stone by hand and built a seven-arch bridge over the Malan river, to ease transport and open a route between the Guanzhong sub-district and Yan'an. It is 55.8 metres long and 5 metres high, built by the old stone-arch method with piers thicker in the middle than at the ends to take the force of the current; a repair in 1977 widened the deck by a metre and added railings, and a further repair in 1986 added pavements and steel-tube railings. The source calls it the oldest and relatively complete stone arch bridge surviving in Xunyi County. The Malan revolutionary memorial hall was completed in 2009 and opened in June 2011, a two-storey full-frame building of 3,600 square metres, showing more than 800 photographs and more than 600 objects with figure sculpture, relief, silicone figures, reconstructed scenes, clay sculpture and electronic media. The martyrs' cemetery, about 2 km southeast of the village, was built in 1955 and holds 88 martyrs who died in the Malan area of Xunyi from 1934 onwards, in round earth mounds 3 to 5 metres across set out east to west in four rows across roughly 1,500 square metres. The Shaanxi provincial government listed the site as a provincial protected relic in September 2003, and the State Council announced it as a national key protected cultural relic in October 2019; it had already been placed among 100 classic red tourism scenic areas nationwide in December 2016 and named a national patriotic education base in March 2017.

What to look for

• The 375 surviving cave dwellings of the Guanzhong sub-district organs and the CPC Shaanxi Provincial working committee
• The Malan seven-arch stone bridge, 55.8 metres long and 5 metres high, built between 1942 and 1944 with piers thicker in the middle than at the ends
• The Malan revolutionary memorial hall, opened in June 2011, with more than 800 photographs and more than 600 objects across 3,600 square metres
• Xi Zhongxun's former residence, one of the named component parts of the site
• The martyrs' cemetery about 2 km southeast of the village, built in 1955, with its four rows of round earth mounds

Location & getting there

Getting to Malan Revolutionary Site

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

• Search for 马栏革命旧址 with 咸阳市 and 旬邑县.