Jishanyi Former Site of U.S. Hump Navigation Station

High above the tiled roofs of Xizhou Ancient Town and the gray waters of Erhai Lake, a crumbling traditional building stands on the highest ridge of Jishanyi Village. Between 1942 and 1945, this quiet elevation served as a critical outpost for the First American Volunteer Group, the Flying Tigers, and later the U.S. 14th Air Force. Here, radio operators and meteorologists monitored the skies, sending coordinates through the mountain fog to Allied pilots flying the Hump.

At the village entrance, a white triangular stone monument catches the morning sun, its inscribed epitaph recording the history of this ridge. To the east of this stone, the station's main building remains as a weathered ruin. The roof has partially collapsed, exposing the interior to the mountain rain. The rough, crumbling plaster of the walls still bears the marks of local builders who raised these traditional timber frames to house foreign military technology. Inside, where damp earth now collects under the open sky, officers once operated military-grade radar, radio transmitters, and weather-monitoring tools. They listened to the sharp crackle of static and the rhythmic hum of generators, tracking planes carrying some of the 650,000 tons of cargo over the Himalayas.

The air route was exceptionally dangerous. More than five hundred planes crashed into the peaks, and over fifteen hundred airmen perished in the gorges. From this high vantage point, the station crew watched the horizon, knowing their signals were the only guide through the violent winds.

Today, the station is a quiet stop on local walking tours. Preservationists, including nearby resident Brian Linden, are working to restore the structure and establish a museum dedicated to this wartime collaboration. Standing by the weathered walls, visitors can still feel the cold wind sweeping off the lake, a silent reminder of the young operators who once stood in this very spot, searching the clouds for the sound of approaching engines.