Shanghai, 15 July – With China commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Shanghai proudly looking back on its role in this signal moment in PRC history, the Consulate General and its Attached Agencies were given a guided tour of the complex memorializing the CPC’s First National Congress in 1921.
The visit was arranged with the support and coordination of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government.
Located in Xintiandi in Huangpu District, the complex features the restored traditional Shanghainese shikumen (stone-frame house) in which the founding Congress of the CPC was held on 23 July 1921, an “oath-taking hall”, and a 3,400 sqm. new Memorial Hall. Opened only last month, the Exhibition hall features over 1,100 documents, artifacts and exhibits tracing the beginnings of the CPC, and its subsequent journey tracking landmark changes in China and its remarkable rise in the past 40 years.
“The memorial presents the story China’s struggles and impressive achievements in the last century, and the keystone role of Shanghai, our host city, in the CPC’s annals. As diplomats, the visit provided us valuable insights into the Party and its evolution, which inform our understanding of what shapes and drives China’s rise, policies and actions,” commented Consul General Josel F. Ignacio.
The site is an important Shanghai landmark, with 1.4 million visitors – visiting foreign dignitaries, diplomats, tourists and the Chinese public -- in 2018 and 2019. Numbers tapered off when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, but has since again picked up, boosted by the CPC Centenary and the site’s additions and expansion.
China celebrated the CPC’s centenary on 01 July. President Rodrigo Duterte has himself felicitated China on the occasion. At the CPC and World Political Parties Summit on 06 July, he joined “in celebrating this important milestone marking a century of the CPC’s visionary leadership” that “oversaw China’s extraordinary rise to prosperity, lifting over 800 million Chinese out of extreme poverty and driving a global growth in the process.” END
