Chinese Communist Party Museum
Birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party
(next to Xintiandi)
Phone: (021) 5383-2171
Hours: Shops - 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Admission: 3 RMB
Nearest Public Transit: South Huangpi Rd. Station, Line 1
On July 23, 1921 several leading radicals and intellectuals met here and founded the Chinese Communist Party. The building was used as a French boarding school and was used because the students were on summer holiday and the watchmen was sympathetic to the cause. Also attending the meeting were two communist advisors sent by the Soviet Union. Mostly the students of radical professor Chen Duxiu and librarian Li Dazhao. Chen was nominated to lead the party although he didn't attend the meeting. One aspiring leader of the party who had worked briefly as an assistant librarian for Li Dazhao did attend the meeting and would later go on to have a leading role in shaping the party and China - Mao Zedong.
The meeting was not as grand as the name suggests. The dozen or so attendants represented 53 founding members of the party. Many of them would not survive the decade in the party. Some found ideological differences with the party, while others were killed by the nationalist or warlord armies. The first meeting was interrupted when members were informed of an immanent police raid. The first national congress was actually completed on a small boat in the middle of the South Lake in Zhejiang province a few hours from Shanghai.
The museum is small and doesn't take long to visit. It does have some items of interest to history buffs including a silver gun given to liberal philosopher Liang Qiqiao for his self defense. Yet we recommend the museum for all travelers who are visiting the adjacent Xintiandi shopping street. The museum is a wonderful example of Shikumen housing (a style popular in the 20's and 30's throughout the city) and often a quiet retreat from the crowds of Xintiandi. More importantly the irony of the Communist Party being formed adjacent to one of the wealthiest and most bourgeois streets in the city today is too good to pass up. Visit the museum and then head over to one of the bars of Xintiandi and contemplate the role of communism in China today while sipping a $12 single malt scotch(or Starbucks Coffee). That juxtaposition alone is worth the 35 cent entrance fee to the museum!
Getting There
The museum and the Xintiandi pedestrian street are located a couple blocks south of the Huangpi South Subway Station. It is also two blocks of Huaihai Road and Huangpi Road. It is on the edge of what was once the French concession and the museum and Xintiandi are a great start or finish to a walking tour of the concession. The museum sometimes stops allowing visitors into the museum about half an hour before closing time so get there early.
