Chongqing, Geleshan Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery (歌乐山烈士陵园 - Gēyàoshān lièshì língyuán)
October 2011
During the second phase of the civil war in China on the Gele mountain, at the foot of which there is a memorial, there were two Kuomintang concentration camps «Zhazidong» (渣滓洞 - Zhāzǐdòng) and «Baigongguan» (白公馆 - Báigōngguǎn), where from 1945 to 1949 Chinese Communists and their supporters were kept in prison, tortured and shot. Now, at the sites of the camps are the museums dedicated to those events.
On October 1, 1949 Mao Zedong proclaimed creation of the People's Republic of China. The same autumn, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) advances to the territories controlled by the Kuomintang and seizes town after town. On November 27, 1949, just 3 days before the PLA took Chongqing and the day before the flee of the Kuomintang government to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-sheks made a senseless carnage by shooting all the prisoners of concentration camps «Zhazidong» and «Baigongguan», which at that time was over 300 people. Only 15 of them managed to survive. According to some information, the North American military that supported the KMT and then helped them to escape from the advancing army were involved in the massacre.
In memory of the tragic victims of that day the Memorial Geleshan was created.
