Yeping Revolutionary Sites

The Yeping complex (叶坪旧址群) is the primary heritage site in Ruijin, a cluster of ordinary earthen farmhouses where the Communist leadership lived and worked during the Jiangxi Soviet period (1931–1934). The preserved buildings include Mao Zedong's former residence, Zhu De's residence, the First Congress Hall of the Chinese Soviet Republic, and several administrative offices. What strikes most visitors is the scale: these are genuinely simple rural buildings with bare floors and wooden furniture, not grand headquarters.

The complex is free to enter and well maintained. Guided tours (Chinese only) follow a set route through the buildings; self-guided exploration with the English signage takes about two hours. The area around the complex — paddy fields, bamboo groves, farmers on bicycles — gives some sense of the rural landscape in which this extraordinary episode of history unfolded.

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A story
The Chinese Soviet Republic, declared in Ruijin in November 1931, was the first time the Chinese Communist Party governed territory. It issued its own currency, ran courts and schools, and maintained an army — all while encircled by Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces conducting successive "encirclement campaigns." The Soviet survived five such campaigns over three years before the October 1934 breakout that became the Long March. The earthen farmhouses at Yeping are where that state apparatus operated.