Xibaipo keeps history alive

Wandering in the memorial, tourists are drawn to daily necessities exhibited behind the windows. Two local girls living in the village nearby crouched down beside a textile machine, discussing whether it was iron and how the army moved it when marching. A tourist pointed the manuscripts of Chairman Mao and said to his friend "Mao has really good handwriting." In another exhibition hall, a tourist surnamed Zhang stared at the farm tools and guns in the showcases. As an employee of Jingye Group, a local iron and steel manufacturer, he wanted to observe these iron tools produced in the past.

Connecting tourists to the revolutionary history is the goal of the memorial. From 1980s, the operators of Xibaipo Memorial have always updated the exhibitions, enriching historical objects and adding new exhibitions. When introducing changes in the exhibitions, Wang says: "People are interested in how the army of the Communist Party of China took over a city. They want to know whether there were differences in people's daily lives, and how the government operated." Therefore, the memorial designed a new exhibition hall to recreate the details of lives at that time by using exhibits, such as showing the money people used for buying goods.