Jianchuan April 2nd Monument

In the quiet shade of Jingfeng Park, within Jinhua Town, a six-meter-tall column of stone rises from an eight-meter-wide square base. This is the Jianchuan April 2nd Monument, formally named the People's Revolutionary Martyrs Monument. Erected on April 5, 1957, by local authorities and citizens of various ethnic groups, it stands as a physical anchor for northwestern Yunnan's revolutionary memory.

The monument marks a specific dawn. On April 2, 1949, local revolutionaries gathered under the wooden eaves of the Lingxing Gate at the Confucian Temple. Led by the CPC West Yunnan Working Committee and the Jianchuan County Committee, they launched an attack that liberated Jianchuan. This victory established the region's first democratic revolutionary government and its first party-led armed force.

To touch the monument is to feel the textures of this history. Cold stone-carved balustrades enclose the base, keeping watch over the square. On the eastern front, the regular script characters reading "People's Revolutionary Martyrs Monument" are deeply incised into the stone. On the north face, Mao Zedong's brushstrokes for the young martyr Liu Hulan are preserved in stone, declaring, "Great in life, glorious in death." Turn to the south, and the clerical script of Zhu De offers a quiet promise: "You live in our memories, we live in your cause."

On the north side, a detailed bas-relief depicts the historic meeting between the Seventh Branch of the Yunnan-Guangxi-Guizhou Border Column and the People's Liberation Army. The rough, raised surfaces of the carved soldiers capture a moment of embrace and relief. Nearby, the scent of ancient cypresses fills the air, blending with the quiet atmosphere of the adjacent exhibition hall detailing the armed struggles of the West Yunnan Working Committee.

In September 2016, the monument became a prefecture-level protected cultural relic. Today, it remains a place of active remembrance. During the Qingming Festival of 2026, over one hundred and eighty representatives gathered on this stone plaza, their voices rising in the mountain air before they walked to the nearby exhibition halls. The monument remains a silent, stone witness to the day the old county seat chose a new path.