🏞️ Qibu Gou Scenic Area · Anti-Japanese Martyrs Monument

Remember history, honor the heroes; towering green mountains, eternal spirits remain

📍 Basic Information

• Full Name: Qibu Gou Anti-Japanese Martyrs Monument
• Location: Within Qibu Gou Scenic Area, Huoshui Township, Wu'an City, Handan Prefecture, Hebei Province (deep in the Taihang Mountains, at an altitude of approximately 1,100 meters)
• Construction Timeline: Originally erected in early 1946, shortly after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan; rebuilt with approval from Wu'an County Government in 1987; designated as a Wu'an Patriotic Education Base in 2015; completed reinforcement of the monument and enhancement of exhibition facilities in 2021
• Protection Level: Wu'an City Immovable Revolutionary Cultural Relic (Registration Number: WA-GM-003)

📜 Historical Background

Qibu Gou lies at the heart of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu Border Region’s guerrilla zone and served as a key operational area for the Sixth Military Sub-district of the Eighth Route Army’s Taihang Military District. From 1942 to 1945, local militia forces and Eighth Route Army soldiers leveraged the rugged terrain of Qibu Gou to conduct anti-sweeping operations, sabotage transportation lines, and escort cadres. A total of 37 martyrs lost their lives here, including:

• Comrade Li Chunlin (Director of the Civil Affairs Department of the Wu'an County Anti-Japanese Democratic Government), who died heroically in 1943 while covering the evacuation of civilians on the western ridge of Qibu Gou
• Wang Yuzhen and seven other members of the "Qibu Gou Women's Litter Team", who were ambushed by Japanese forces during a medical evacuation mission in 1944 and all perished

The monument was spontaneously built by local residents using stacked stone, originally erected near the site where the martyrs fell. It stands as one of the earliest grassroots-initiated war memorials still existing in Wu'an, vividly preserving the revolutionary memory of unity between military and civilians—“one flesh, one blood”—in the Taihang base area.

🏛️ Architectural and Cultural Features

Monument Structure

• Design: Standing 4.2 meters tall, featuring a square pyramidal granite shaft, with a base constructed from local blue stone
• Inscriptions: The front bears large characters in Wei-style calligraphy — "Eternal Glory to the Anti-Japanese Martyrs" (originally inscribed in 1946, legible and well-preserved); the back side features engraved regular script detailing the List of Qibu Gou Martyrs and Brief Accounts of Their Deeds, listing 37 names, hometowns, and dates of sacrifice. Among them, 12 are unnamed martyrs, marked with verified information such as “Name Unknown, from Wu'an, Autumn 1943”
• Associated Remains:
  • Two wartime trench remnants (approximately 18 meters long, 1.2 meters deep) preserved in front of the monument, confirmed by cultural relics authorities as authentic wartime fortifications
  • A centuries-old ancient locust tree beside the monument (over 220 years old), locally known as the “Guardian Tree.” A fragment of a metal plaque, originally nailed into the trunk during the monument’s construction in 1946, is now housed in the Wu'an City Museum

Surrounding Commemorative Spaces

• "Fires of War Path": A 327-step stone trail winding along the mountain slope, with a bronze plaque every ten steps, each inscribed with a brief oral history excerpt from Qibu Gou’s resistance period (collected from surviving militiamen and family members, completed in 2020)
• Relief Wall: 12 meters long, carved from Taihang Mountain stone, depicting three scenes — “Ambush at Qibu Gou,” “Women Supporting the Front,” and “Joining the Party Under Fire” — created by the Sculpture Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts based on historical archives

🌟 Cultural Significance

• Historical Witness Value: Provides tangible evidence of the nationwide resistance movement in the Taihang region under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, where “every village became a fortress, every household a lookout post”
• Spiritual Inheritance Value: Serves as a mandatory destination for school field trips across Wu'an’s primary and secondary schools. Annual commemorative events are held during Qingming Festival, July 7th, and September 3rd, featuring the popular program “Hear Veterans Tell Stories of Qibu Gou,” which has evolved into a recognized red education brand
• Regional Cultural Value: The inscriptions incorporate dialect annotations (e.g., “geliang,” “yapan”) with corresponding Mandarin pronunciations, demonstrating the organic fusion of revolutionary discourse with local vernacular language — making it a crucial physical source for studying cultural dissemination in North China’s base areas

🧭 Travel Information

🌲 Green mountains bury heroic bones, crimson blood stains the Taihang peaks
The Qibu Gou Anti-Japanese Martyrs Monument is more than a geographical landmark—it stands as a spiritual boundary upon the spine of the Taihang Mountains. Silent yet profound, it tells the story of how faith was forged in fire amid despair, echoing the indomitable national spirit born in this humble mountain valley.