The Zunyi Conference Memorial is one of the most visited revolutionary sites in China, and with good reason — the two-storey brick building where Politburo members gathered in January 1935 is one of the most consequential rooms in modern Chinese history. The meeting replaced the Soviet-advised military commanders who had led the Red Army to near-destruction with Mao Zedong's more pragmatic strategy of mobile guerrilla warfare. Without the decisions made here, the Long March would almost certainly have ended in defeat.
The site occupies a well-preserved Republican-era merchant house on Ziyin Road in Honghuagang District. The ground floor has been converted to a museum with documents, photographs, and maps of the Long March route. The meeting room upstairs has been restored to its 1935 appearance — sparse, functional, with a long table and kerosene lamps. The museum attached to the site goes into considerable depth about the Communist leadership in this period, including the internal disagreements that made the conference necessary. Whether you find this history politically inspiring or coolly analytical, the weight of the place is difficult to ignore. Allow an hour at minimum.
The Yangliujie Catholic Church nearby, where the Red Army's political directorate was based during the conference period, is also worth a visit. The juxtaposition of the Gothic Revival church with its revolutionary-era history is unexpected and worth seeing.