Date Garden - Site of the CCP Secretariat

Occupying an area of 540,000 square meters (about 133 acres), the Date Garden-site of the CCP Secretariat is eight kilometers (about five miles) away from Yan’an. There are twenty cave dwellings (a kind of traditional house for people in northern Shaanxi Province, usually carved out of hills made up of compacted earth), along with over eighty tile-roofed houses and one assembly hall. It was originally a garden of a warlord and at one time had also been used as the site of the CCP Secretariat from October 1943 to March 1947. As an important revolutionary site, it has now become a famous revolutionary tourist attraction.

A lot of historically meaningful events took place in the Date Garden during the period between 1943 and 1947. The Chinese people won the Anti-Japanese War and The Seventh National Congress of CPC was held. Fully prepared for the situations following the Anti-Japanese War, the central government broke Kuomintang (KMT)’s dream to start the civil war across the country. All these events are closely linked to the fate of the whole nation.

There are 815 pieces of cultural relics exhibited within the garden, most of which are regarding its revolutionary history. In the garden some of the former residences, including those of Mao Zedong (1893 - 1976), Zhu De (1886 - 1976, a great general), Liu Shaoqi (1898 - 1976, Chinese communist political leader), and Zhou Enlai (1898 - 1976, first premier of the PRC) and the assembly halls are open to the public. Xinfu Penstock flows across the yard of the garden. This penstock was built by the Eighth Route Army (led by the Chinese Communist Party during the Anti-Japanese War) to facilitate the irrigation of nearby fields. Local people had benefited a lot from the penstock, so they called it Xinfu Penstock which means blessedness.

TIPS

1. Basic info

Address: eight kilometers (about five miles) away from Yan’an, Shaanxi

Ticket：Free for all

Opening time: 

Summer 8:00-17:30

Winter 8:30-17:00

2. Transportation

By bus:

Take a train to Yan’an Railway Station, and you can take bus No.8 or No.13 to go there directly.

By taxi:

It costs about CNY 33 from the Yan’an Railway Station to this scenic area.