Memorial Museum of Tunnel Warfare Sites at Jiaozhuanghu Village

Memorial Museum of Tunnel Warfare Sites at Jiaozhuanghu Village is located in Longwantun Town, Shunyi District, Beijing, at the foot of Mountain Waituo, a branch of the Yan Mountains. Driving along Jingshun Road to Kuliushu Roundabout, then turn right, and driving directly along Shunping Road to the crossing at Muyan Rd, Yang Town, turn right, and driving ahead, you could get there. It is 60 kilometers from downtown Beijing. During the War of Resistance against Japan and the Liberation War, Jiaozhuanghu was under the leadership of the Jidong (east Hebei Province) branch of the Communist Party. It was the only road leading to Pingxi and Pingbei communist strongholds.

In the spring of 1943, Japanese invaders launched a ferocious attack against Jiaozhuanghu. To fight them, local soldiers and civilians, led by the Communist Party, creatively invented the tunnel warfare according to the local situation. At first the tunnels they made could only hold one or a couple of persons; later they came to connect every house and every village in the area, serving as underground fortresses, with holes for lookout and shooting, commanding posts, and flexible boards to ward off water, poison and toxic gases. The entrances, exits, and shooting holes, hidden in floors, kang (heated bed used in north China), chambers of the kitchen ranges, mangers, walls of wells, or under millstones, were difficult for the enemy to discover. By 1946, the total length of the tunnels had reached 23 li (1 li = 500 meters), and had connected Jiaozhuanghu to Longwantun Village, Tangdong Village, and Dabeiwu Village. Soldiers and civilians used them to protect wounded Chinese soldiers, store materiels, and shattered enemy's attacks for many times, achieving glorious victories. In Nov. 1947, the government of Shunyi County awarded Jiaozhuanghu a silk banner that bears “The Greatest Fortress of the People”. After 1949, to commemorate the glories of revolutionaries and inculcate the people with the revolutionary traditions, a museum was set up to show the history of the militia of Jiaozhuanghu. In 1979 the municipal government of Beijing named it “Memorial Museum of Tunnel Warfare Sites at Jiaozhuanghu, Beijing”, and designated it as a major historic site under municipal protection. Since 1987, the municipal government and the district government have allocated funds for restoring a 800-meter-long tunnel, building and altering dozens of kilometers of roads, and purchased and restored 40 houses involved in the war. In Sept. 2004, a new memorial museum of tunnel warfare sites started to be built, the total investment in which was 12 million yuan. It covers an area of 7,260 square meters, with a 2,000-square-meter floor space. It includes restoring blockhouses against the enemy. It was officially opened in August 2005.

The museum displays evidences of the atrocities of Japanese soldiers and quislings, the glorious achievements of local soldiers and civilians fighting against them, the formation of the tunnels and their features. In addition, tourists may watch an old movie named Tunnel Warfare, visit well-preserved tunnel sites and houses involved in the war, and have “Anti-Japanese War meals”.

The Jiaozhuanghu Folk Custom Village, located closely to the museum, is the first “red folk custom” village in Shunyi, and a city-level folk custom village. It comprises of 55 folk-custom households, with a capacity of 1,000 lodgers and 2,500 diners.

Publishes at : 07-09-23 21:39

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