One-Day Tour to Liujiaping and Hongjiaguan Tourist Zone in Sangzhi (Former Residence of Marshal He Long)

Day 1: Zhangjiajie is a land steeped in revolutionary red heritage. We depart from the urban area by coach for Sangzhi. We will visit the Former Site of the Headquarters of the 2nd and 6th Red Army Corps, Liujiaping—the departure point of the Long March of the Second Front Red Army—and the former residence of Marshal He Long, one of China’s Ten Great Marshals. Visitors can appreciate red folk songs and revolutionary dances, and listen to touching revolutionary stories. It feels as if we can hear the impassioned cries of fate, the tremors of countless souls, and the moving odes to life and death echoing through history and the present.

Hongjiaguan Tourist Zone is located in Hongjiaguan Village, Sangzhi County, Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province, about a two-hour drive from downtown Zhangjiajie. He Long was a founding father of the People’s Republic of China, a distinguished military strategist, and one of the founders of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

The Former Residence of He Long is a traditional wooden house with four beams and three rooms, facing south with its back to the north. It was originally built by He Liangshi, Marshal He Long’s grandfather, during the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty, and later inherited by He Shidao, He Long’s father. He Long, together with his elder sister, younger sister and younger brother, was born here and spent their childhood and adolescence in this house. Due to the large family size, He Long’s father partitioned the three wooden rooms into six with wooden planks. The central room serves as the main hall. The plaque above the gate bears the golden characters "Former Residence of He Long" on a red background, handwritten by Deng Xiaoping.

This site sits in Liujiaping, Sangzhi County. During the Agrarian Revolutionary War, it was one of the core regions where the Hunan-Hubei Border, Hunan-Hubei-West Hunan and Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Guizhou Revolutionary Base Areas were established.

In early and mid-October 1935, the 2nd and 6th Red Army Corps (which merged with the 32nd Red Army to form the Second Front Red Army in July 1936) assembled their troops around Liujiaping in Sangzhi County. Their mission was to coordinate with the Central Red Army on the Long March and prepare for their own breakout and long-distance expedition.

On November 4, leading cadres of the two corps and the provincial Party committee, including He Long, Ren Bishi, Guan Xiangying, Xiao Ke and Wang Zhen, held a meeting to deliberate and arrange the strategic shift and breakout plans for the Red Army. After thorough preparations following the meeting, the 2nd and 6th Red Army Corps held a grand oath-taking rally in the rain at Liujiaping on November 19. He Long, Commander of the 2nd Red Army Corps, issued the order to break through enemy lines and embark on the long expedition. That night, tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers from the two corps set off from Liujiaping, Gantianba and Maple Pagoda to carry out the strategic shift, later known as the Long March. From then on, the name "Liujiaping" was inscribed in history alongside the Long March.