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Archive for October 9th, 2008
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Thursday, October 9th, 2008China Travel – Graveyard of the 72 Martyrs at Huanghuagang Hillock
Thursday, October 9th, 2008 |
The Graveyard of the 72 Martyrs at Huanghuagang Hillock lies in the middle of Xianlie Road in Guangzhou City of Guangdong Province.
The forerunner of the Democratic Revolution in China, Mr. Sun Yat-sen originated the Alliance Society, which carried out the activities against the imperialism and feudalism. On April 27, 1911, they initiated the uprising in Guangzhou City to overthrow the Qing (1644-1911) government. Huang Xing led over 130 people to attack the government offices such as the Official Residence of the Two Guangs‘ (Guangdong and Guangxi provinces) Viceroy. After the bloody battle of one day and night, the uprising failed. Over 100 revolutionary heroes such as Lin Juemin, Yu Peilun, Lin Shishuang, etc., sacrificed themselves. Later, Pan Dawei, a member of the Alliance Society, ventured his life to encoffin the martyrs and buried the 72 heroes at Huanghuagang.
The Graveyard of the 72 Martyrs at Huanghuagang was built in 1918. It takes up an area of 30,000 square meters. The gate of the graveyard is a decorated archway, which is 13 meters high and has three archways. The tomb passage inside the gate spans 200 meters. On the top of the hillock stand the tomb. The base of the tomb built with rough stones is square with each side of 17 meters wide. On the base, there is a kiosk for the tombstone, which was engraved with the words meaning The Tomb for the 72 Martyrs. Behind the tombstone, there is a monument made of gigantic stones. The head of the monument has a pyramid shape built of 72 stones, on the top of which stands the Statue of Liberty God holding a torch high. Behind the monument there is a stele that records the detailed course of the uprising. There are twelve Chinese characters that mean the merit recording monument for the 72 martyrs, the founders of the Republic of China written by Zhang Taiyan.
There is also the tomb of Pan Dawei, who ventured to bury the remains of the martyrs. When he died of illness in Hong Kong in1929, his tomb was moved to Huanghuagang Hillock. He sleeps peacefully together with the martyrs here.
(Source: chinaculture.org)
