New Exhibit for Guangzhou's Old Soviet Consulate

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Like many cultural resources in Guangzhou, the Uprising Memorial Museum is often hidden by stampedes of weekend shoppers. With retail tourism outweighing cultural tourism the Cultural Department is making new efforts to promote museums and other resources. This time the Uprising Memorial Museum is showcasing a new exhibit detailing the history of the Haizhu Bridge. The exhibit's name is Bridge City. To visit just take the 1 Metro to Gongyuanqian and walk out of Exit J.

The exhibit shows the 80 year history of the first bridge to span China's Pearl River in 1933. At the time this was an impressive conquest, while today over a dozen bridges span the same river. If we look at this as a step in modern Chinese engineering, today China holds the three longest bridges in the world: The Qingdao Haiwan Bridge in Shandong, The Jiangyin Bridge in Jiangsu, and in two years the first bridge spanning between Hong Kong and the Mainland over 30 miles: the Gang Zhu Au da qiao. Today China really has nothing left to prove in terms of erecting modern marvels. Though longevity is more impressive than engineering flash. The Haizhu Bridge has survived an attack by Japanese bombs in 1938, a blast during the Civil War in 1949 and additional lanes for bicycles added in 1974. It's newly enforced steel rivets have given the bridge an additional 50 years solid use proving a good example of historic preservation in a growing ultra modern city.

The exhibit shows a chronology of the bridge history and is open free of Charge. For those who are Chinese illiterate bring a local friend to help read the captions. Aside from the new exhibition the building itself is worth bringing an extra memory card for the camera. Two buildings with vivid yellow and white mix baroque and Portuguese architecture with two Lingnan Style pagodas at the entrance. It's a majestic space put to good use.

The permanent exhibits in the museum are from the 1927 Uprising in the early years of China's Civil War. (This 1927 event is often confused with the 'Qinghai Uprising' in 1911, totally different event.) In 1927 year China's communist party was only eight years old and planned a military coup against the Nationalist Government.

The first battle began in Nanchang on August First 1927, and the second was held in Guangzhou. This ended in a mass execution of communist soldiers, but the Soviets allowed many many of the accused political asylum in this building. This is the reason it was chosen for a museum in 1987. Today the museum is not popular outside of researchers and history buffs it does provide a glimpse into a complex past. Artifacts on display include soldier uniforms, weapons and a detailed photo history.

Since the entrance is free all month, it is absolutely free to learn about Guangzhou's unique and hidden stories.

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