As the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) approaches, red tourism has started to trend across the country. The term refers to visiting historical sites with a modern revolutionary legacy, a pastime that has thrived during the year's holidays following the effective containment of the COVID-19 epidemic in China.
Over the years, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism has worked to tap into the city's red tourism potential and put forward numerous tour routes accordingly. As a result, official statistics show that the city's red tourism sites received some 1.99 million visits during the three-day May Day holiday. That number is expected to grow during the upcoming summer vacation and the National Day holiday in October.
Here, China.org.cn reviews Beijing's time-honored revolutionary history and selects ten of the most famous red tourism sites in the city.
# Red Building at Peking University
Built in 1916, the Red Building was the former main campus for Peking University. At that time, the red-brick building housed early CPC revolutionaries, including Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, and Mao Zedong, who brought Marxism, democracy, and science to the nation.
It was also the birthplace of the May Fourth Movement, marked by student protests against the Republic of China (ROC) government's response to the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed unfair treaties on China and undermined the country's sovereignty after World War I. The movement then triggered a national campaign to overhaul Chinese society and promote new ideas.