Xi'an Incident Memorial Hall reopens
By admin on 2014-12-26

A ceremony marking the completed restoration of the Xi'an Incident Memorial Hall was held at No. 69 Jianguo Road in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province on December 9. This marked the reopening of Xi'an Incident Memorial Hall to visitors after two years of renovations which cost about 20 million yuan ($2.9 million). Visiting the hall is free of charge.

General Zhang Xueliang and General Yang Hucheng

In the Xi'an incident on December 12, 1936, General Zhang Xueliang and General Yang Hucheng detained Chiang Kai-shek, head of the Kuomintang government. They forced him to agree to form a united front with the Communists against the Japanese invasion. It is also called the Double-12 Incident. The incident shocked China and changed the course of modern Chinese history. As a result, the incident was the second cooperation between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. The two generals made a great contribution to the revolutionary cause of the Chinese people.

The renovation of the Xi'an Incident Memorial Hall included repairing the former residence of General Zhang (1901-2001) and the villa of General Yang (1893-1949), the expansion of the exhibition rooms in the memorial hall and the use of multimedia for the video room and the tourist reception center. After the expansion, the exhibition rooms show the history of the Xi’an incident from different aspects illustrated with more than 200 historic photos, about 30 cultural relics and 20 historical documents. The highlight is the exhibition of the silica gel statue of T. V. Soong and his sister Soong May-ling, the wife of Chiang Kai-shek. These statues are the first of its kind shown in the Chinese mainland.

The Xi'an Incident Memorial Hall was built in December 1986 and was a compound consisting of the former residence of General Zhang and the villa of General Yang. The former residence of General Zhang is a courtyard house which is a three-storied brick-and-wood western-style building, which is a representative historical relic under the national protection in the area. The memorial hall has had 1.6 million visitors since its establishment 20 years ago.