Zaoyuan (Date Garden) Revolutionary Site

Zaoyuan (Date Garden) was the headquarters of the Central Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party from October 1943 to March 1947, a critical period that included the Seventh Party Congress and the final consolidation of Mao's ideological and political dominance within the party. The site, eight kilometres northwest of the city centre, preserves the cave dwellings and courtyard houses of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhu De in their original condition. The name comes from the date trees that still grow across the hillside.

The yaodong (cave dwellings) are the most atmospheric part of the visit. These are not primitive caves but proper rooms, cut horizontally into the loess hillside with vaulted brick ceilings, plastered walls, and small windows. They are cool in summer and naturally insulated in winter — a practical dwelling form that has been used on the Loess Plateau for thousands of years. In this case, they were also necessary: the party was surviving on minimal resources, and the caves cost nothing to build or heat. The gardens between the caves, with their fruit trees and vegetable plots, give the site a lived-in quality that larger revolutionary monuments sometimes lack.

Admission is free, as it is for most revolutionary sites in Yan'an. Crowds are heaviest on national holidays and during political study tours organized by the state. The site is well signed in both Chinese and English.

things to do sight
A story
Mao Zedong wrote "On Contradiction," "On Practice," and many other foundational theoretical texts in his cave at Zaoyuan. The caves had no electricity in the early years; work was done by oil lamp. The furniture — a simple bed, a wooden desk, a chair — remains in place, and visitors can stand in the low-ceilinged room where the documents that shaped twentieth-century China were drafted. A single portrait of Mao on the wall and a line of books are the only decoration.