Yan'an is a small, sleepy town in the far northern
border region of Shaanxi province, in the heart of
this region's Yellow Soil Plateau. If the biggest
notables in recent Chinese history had not intervened,
this area would almost certainly have remained in
obscurity. In 1936, however, a troop of hardened and
weary soldiers, part of a once fairly powerful faction
of a United Front government, arrived and then settled
in the town.
These were the Red Army, a group of socialist thinkers
and working men that had originally grouped together
(in 1921) in defiance of a fairly repressive internal
government and in disgust at the growing influence
that their neighbor, Japan, was extending in the northern
regions. After an initial cycle of embracement and
then betrayal by the Nationalist Government (Guomindang),
the Communists were finally attacked on full scale.
They fled for their lives through some of China's
least hospitable countryside on a devastating Long
March. From their original commune in the Jianxi Soviet,
deep south east, for over a year these hardy soldiers
meandered, beset on all sides, until finally coming
to a respite in Yan'an, in China's far north. The
town was poor and with relatively unprofitable soil,
making it ripe for the communists to disseminate their
doctrines and provide welcomed help and redistribution
in the fields.
By 1950, after the successful removal of China's
"internal and external cancers" (the Guomindang
and the Japanese Manchukuo states), the town became
one of China's Meccas, along with the hometown of
Chairman Mao in Shaoshan. The tourism industry in
Yan'an bloomed, as any self-respecting communist made
the treck to pay their homage to the greats of the
revolution.
Today the town has returned to its relatively quiet
roots, and tourists here are mainly PLA soldiers on
induction trips, truly hardcore Communists, or interested
foreign tourists. Most of the sights in town are related
to the period of the 1930s and 1940s when the Chinese
Communist Party were in charge here and thankfully
much of the tourism that passed through town in the
second half of this century, perhaps in awe of the
solemnity of this holy region, have little disturbed
the original style of the town. It is the older sections
of town, the scenery around and the strangely enticing,
cold socialist architecture that is interesting as
a one day tour.
Sight Overview
Yan'an is a remote town in the northern part of Shaanxi
Province. It was the Red Army who, having been betrayed
yet again by the Nationalists and then hounded halfway
across the most inhospitable parts of China on an
epic Long March, gave this town fame by occupying
it. As with much of the propaganda, the main sights
in town are only really interesting to those with
a fix upon the history that goes with them. Thankfully
both the architecture here and the scenery outside
of town, should make this a worthwhile one day stop.
Most of the attractions here are more or less related
to the sacred topic of revolution. Visitors should
start with a general overview of the tremultuous history
of the early years from inside the Revolutionary History
Museum, which boasts uniforms, weaponery, books, photos
and other paraphenalia from this era. Then a visit
to the Yangjialing Revolution Headquarters, where
the top cadres, including Chairman Mao, ate, slept,
held meetings and wrote propaganda, will put a bit
of flesh upon the past. There are also numerous other
headquarters in the town, of note are both the Fenghuangshan
and Wangjiaping HQs. There is one sight that does
claim roots from before the revolution, the Baota
Hill, whose main pagoda is of Tang Dynasty (618-907
AD) origin, although even this has now been incorporated
as one of Red China's trademarks.
An eight hour bus ride from Yan'an will take you
to a sleepy town on the fringe of the Mao Wu Su Desert,
Yulin, that is a perfect day or so get away. The town
has been little touched since its heyday in the Ming
Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) as a frontier patrol town and
retains much of its old time charm and pretty architecture.
