Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the "Marco

Mr. D
Feb 7, 2019
2 min read

The Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance is located inside of Wanping Fortress in Fengtai District, Beijing. What an interesting museum and a great location for a day out! This is a really well set up museum with lots to see and read (much of the information is in both Chinese and English).

We were studying the Chinese Civil War as well as "Japanese Expansion" in Grade 11 DP History and I took the class to this museum for the day. It was nice to "bring the history to life" that we had been learning about and to be in the exact place that the Second Sino-Japanese War started! The museum is huge and takes, on average, about 2 hours to get through, of course depending on how much you read. It could possibly take several more hours if you read and looked at every detail!

The place I'm referring to where the Second Sino-Japanese War started is of course the impressive "Marco Polo Bridge" - or Lugou Qiao as it's called in China. The bridge is located just outside of Wanping Fortress and it's an easy walk to it. It is well worth checking out as it's a well-preserved marble bridge, originally constructed in 1189. The bridge came to be known as the Marco Polo Bridge in the West because it appears in the famous traveler's "book of travels", where he praises the bridge's construction and beauty. And for some reason there are even some ostriches and peacocks nearby!

Wanping Fortress itself is an interesting walled city, erected during the Ming Dynasty, and consisting of some very impressive walls and gates. It's a beautiful and quiet walk around and brings to mind what Beijing must have been like hundreds of years ago! Note the cannon holes in the walls caused by Japanese artillery.