The 178th Army Division ()(2nd Formation) was activated on July 1, 1967 at Chengxihu Farm in
Huoqiu
Huoqiu County () is a county in the west of Anhui Province, People's Republic of China, under the jurisdiction of Lu'an City and bordering Henan province to the west. It has a population of 1,640,000 and an area of . The government of Huoqiu Count ...
,
Anhui
Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
province.
The division was a part of
60th Army Corps. As its activation the division was a behind-the-enemy-line formation, composing of 4 infantry regiments:
*532nd Infantry Regiment (former 543rd);
*533rd Infantry Regiment;
*534th Infantry Regiment;
*538th Infantry Regiment.
The division conducts agricultural construction missions until October 1969, when it was replaced by the activating
73rd Army Division and moved to
Suzhou
Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...
,
Jiangsu
Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...
as a combat alert unit. By that time the division was converted to a field-army formation, and its 538th Infantry Regiment was reorganized as Artillery Regiment, 178th Army Division. Since then the division was composed of:
*532nd Infantry Regiment;
*533rd Infantry Regiment;
*534th Infantry Regiment;
*Artillery Regiment.
In September 1985 the division was disbanded. Headquarters, 178th Army Division was converted to Headquarters, Artillery Brigade of
1st Army.
References
*中国人民解放军各步兵师沿革，http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_a3f74a990101cp1q.html
{{People's Liberation Army Divisions
Infantry divisions of the People's Liberation Army
Military units and formations established in 1967
Military units and formations disestablished in 1985