Red Cliff Museum

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Quite a trek to get to the Red Cliff Village. It's on the city bus line, but it's over an hour and seemingly out in the middle of nowhere--of course, I know I'm still in the middle of the city. And just when you think your journey has been long enough, you encounter stairs. More stairs than you ever imagine. There were so many I couldn't see the top when I was standing at the bottom. I know it's called Red Cliff, but honestly, I didn't come prepared with my rock-climbing gear.

Red Cliff is where Mos, Enlai, and friends and the Kunmingtang hid and lived and worked during WWII, or the "War Against Japanese Aggression," as the museum calls it. And every other museum around here calls it. It's a large, beautiful, secluded area. Lots of trees and plants and flowers and palms.

I got to see where they all used to work, research, eat, and sleep. Where they would eat and where they would debate and plan. It's a lot to chew on. It was weird to look into a modest room and realize that Mao used to live there. Even more ironic is the reality that, as a communist leader, his room was twice the size and had a large desk, large bed, chairs and tables. Most people shared a smaller room with a small bed and two desks. Enlai's room was almost as nice as Mao's, but not quite.

Saw the bomb shelter in the mountain, the well they used, and a cherry tree garden. The trees were gifts from the Japanese after the war was over. The kindergarten was closed as one of the nicer looking meeting buildings. There was even a machine gun vantage point; sadly, it was closed. Hard to imagine that the ideas that came out of a place of such beauty would later cause so much destruction and despair.

I left around 12:30, earlier than planned, but it was hot and I was melting. I thoroughly enjoyed the AC on the bus. I relaxed at the hostel, talking to friends before catching my train back to Chengdu.

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Photos

awwww
"A photo of the innocent and lovely children of Hongyan."
A very normal caption.

The House at Red Cliff
Where everyone worked and lived.

Zhou Enlai's office
and living space

Mao gets a double bed to himself
While all the workers share a single bed. Go Communism.