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The Eastern Expedition headquarters

Two small European villas in red brick. When the Eastern Expedition entered Shantou a second time in 1925, headquarters and political department were set up here, and Zhou Enlai worked in the east building.

What to see文化看點

Two small reinforced-concrete buildings of 1924, put up as a hotel run by an Englishman and later used by an embroidery firm; in 1925, when the Eastern Expedition entered Shantou for the second time, they became headquarters and political department. What is worth looking at is the veranda and the brick — the fair-faced red brick of the front verandas is a different thing from the display installed inside later.

History歷史

The site is on Waima Road in Jinping district, Shantou: two two-storey reinforced-concrete buildings of 1924, built as a hotel run by an Englishman under the name Shiyi Lou and later renamed the Gebao drawn-thread firm. East and west buildings stand side by side facing south, doors, windows and stairs all of timber, the front verandas of fair-faced red brick laid with white lime.

On 4 November 1925 the Eastern Expedition of the National Revolutionary Army entered Shantou for the second time and set up headquarters and political department here. In May 1996 the Shantou museum of the expedition’s revolutionary sites was established, and it opened in July 1997. In 2013 the buildings entered the seventh batch of national protected sites.

PeoplePeople

• Chiang Kai-shek, commander of the expedition, worked in the west building with the Soviet military adviser General Galen.
• Zhou Enlai, director-general of the political department, worked in the east building and there wrote the two characters ‘revolution’ for the supplement of the Lingdong Republican Daily.

Craft工藝

A standard modern European two-storey structure of brick and timber: monolithic beams, slabs and columns, an outer veranda, timber windows. East and west are identical in form and stand side by side. Among the foreign-style buildings of Shantou at the time they were not the grandest, and what sets them apart is the history.

What to look at看什麼

• The front verandas of both buildings: how the red brick is laid.
• The display: five rooms, close to two hundred historical photographs and a hundred and fifty objects and replicas.

Visiting參觀提示

On Waima Road, not far from the customs clock tower and Qilu fort; three places make half a day.

Tickets and opening Free. Opening follows the museum’s hours, with closures posted at the gate. Groups should make contact in advance.

Related entries對應詞條

People and events, history and geography.

Two expeditions, and Shantou兩次東征與汕頭

In 1925 the National Revolutionary Army marched east twice against Chen Jiongming, who held the East River country. The first went in February, the second in October; the second entered Shantou on 4 November. Headquarters and political department were set up in these two buildings on Waima Road.

Zhou Enlai, director-general of the political department, worked in the east building and wrote the two characters ‘revolution’ there for the supplement of the Lingdong Republican Daily. He was twenty-seven that year. After the expeditions Shantou became the base of the national revolution in eastern Guangdong, and these two buildings turned from foreign-firm property into historic ground.

The buildings and the display樓與陳列

The two were built in 1924 as a hotel run by an Englishman, later the Gebao drawn-thread firm: reinforced concrete, two storeys, doors, windows and stairs of timber, front verandas of fair-faced red brick with white lime. East and west are identical and stand side by side — not the grandest of Shantou’s foreign-style buildings, and different because of the history.

The museum was established in 1996 and opened in July 1997, with five rooms holding close to two hundred historical photographs and a hundred and fifty objects and replicas. Before going in, stand a while at street level: the width of Waima Road here and the height of the buildings still keep the scale of republican Shantou.

On the same trip同城順路

• The old Chaoshan Customs buildings — on the Waima Road line, walkable.
• Qilu fort — also in the old city.
• The Central Red Route sites — also in the old city.

Order them by map and by your own hours; this only says what is on the way to what.

Sources來源

The history of the buildings, the 1925 garrison and the museum: the Shantou city government portal, ‘On the red route, opening the memory of Shantou’. The listing batch: the same, and Nanfang Plus, ‘Three more added: which of Shantou’s six national protected sites is the fairest’.

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Last revised: 5 November 2026