Zhong'anlun Monument () is a memorial monument dedicated to the victims of the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

ferry disaster that occurred in October 1945, during the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

. Opened in October 1987, it is located in the Taixing Park on the north side of

Taixing Taixing () is a county-level city under the administration of Taizhou, Jiangsu province, China. It is located in the Yangtze River Delta, bordering the prefecture-level cities of Nantong to the east, Changzhou to the southwest, and Zhenjiang to th ...

City in Taizhou,

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 ...

province.

History

On 15 October 1945, about one thousand people boarded the ferry ''Zhong'anlun'' () for a crossing of the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

from Wujin County to Taixing City, on orders that came from the Communist Party. The ferry sank about 2 km south of Taixing, resulting in the deaths of 800 people. Four decades later, the Jiangsu provincial government built a monument to commemorate the victims of the disaster. On 15 October 1987, the day of the 42nd anniversary of the ferry sinking, the Zhong'anlun Memorial was officially opened to the public. Wanshuqin1

Monuments

The environment of the memorial hall is beautiful and solemn with many hemlocks and other plants. The first scene in the memorial is a horizontal monument 6.4 m wide; the front of the monument carries a vigorous and forceful inscription of eight Chinese characters: ("The heroic spirit of the martyrs will abide forever, as long as the river lows intothe sea"), by General

Ye Fei Ye Fei (; 7 May 1914 – 18 April 1999) was a Philippine-born Chinese military general and politician of the People's Republic of China. Born Sixto Mercado Tiongco in the Philippines to a Chinese father and a Filipino mother, he joined the Chi ...

. On the back of the monument is an inscriptions in honor of those martyrs. Another monument at the site is a magnificent stone

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

, 18.8 m high, with the inscription "Monument to the martyrs of the

New Fourth Army The New Fourth Army () was a unit of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China established in 1937. In contrast to most of the National Revolutionary Army, it was controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and not by the ruling Ku ...

's Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military Region who perished while crossing the river during their retreat to the north" ()", also written by Ye Fei. The base of monument resembles a sinking boat, to make a metaphor of the cause of martyrs' death. The side of the monument looks like a leaping spray, symbolizing the revolutionary spirit of the martyrs that can be eternal as long as the Yangtze River, from generation to generation.

Exhibition room

The exhibition room is the most important part of the memorial, and it is divided into three parts. They are "Suzhe Military Region, great achievements", "the great fame of martyrs, and the hopeful future of generation" and "inherit tradition, carry forward". There are many historical photos and biographies of martyrs are displayed here, including 63 photos, five charts and four entities. Their heroic deeds are admired by many tourists every year, especially in the

Tomb Sweeping Day The Qingming festival or Ching Ming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day in English (sometimes also called Chinese Memorial Day or Ancestors' Day), is a traditional Chinese festival observed by the Han Chinese of mainland China, Hong Ko ...

. Those materials are divided into two parts according to Military Regions, Jiangsu province and Zhejiang province. Wanshuqin2

Graveyard

The graveyard is located out of the showroom, and there are 800 martyrs buried in the cemetery. It looks like a round bed, and it covers an area of 98 square meters with 2.5 meters' diameter. The graveyard is surrounded by many hemlocks, which makes the phenomenon very solemn.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhong'anlun Monument 1987 sculptures Obelisks in China Museums in Jiangsu Buildings and structures completed in 1987 Shipwrecks in rivers Maritime incidents in October 1945 Yangtze River Chinese Civil War Shipwrecks of China