If we consider the Zengjiayan Cliff Trail as a chain, the area that runs through it starts from the Shangqing Temple turntable and extends towards Zhongshan Fourth Road, on the left side of the mountain ridge.

The area is not large. Walking for half an hour, taking a taxi without skipping words, but this palm sized place represents more than just the scenery of mountains and rivers, whether for Yuzhong, Chongqing, China, or even the world.

It should be an epic that records the courage and will of Chongqing, and is the most precious spiritual homeland of Chongqing.

Those are pearls that truly belong to the history and culture of Chongqing's mother city.

Talking and laughing are all heroic figures

In 1929, Chongqing was officially established as a city. Pan Wenhua, the then mayor of Chongqing, built roads to expand the city. The Zengjiayan area of Shangqing Temple was officially included in the new urban expansion area of Chongqing. The two roads leading out of the city eventually intersected here, and Zengjiayan became one of the early transportation hubs in Chongqing.

After the expansion of the urban area, a number of new buildings appeared on both sides of the main road. Due to the foreseeable prosperity, Sichuan military leaders and business tycoons seized the business opportunity and bought land from Zengjiayan, Shangqing Temple, Niujiaotuo, and Guihua Garden to build mansions, forming a new urban area. The special park on the side of the roundabout is among them.

Special Garden Photography/Yulike

The Shancheng Trail is a unique form of transportation in Chongqing. When traffic was poor in the past, the stone staircase trail built along the mountain and built in line with the trend was the key to connecting different areas.

The Zengjiayan Cliff Trail is located in this area. The stone staircase on one side of the special park leads up a gentle slope, entering the trail on the left and the iron railing locked on the right. It is one of the renovated buildings of the Chinese Democratic Party History Exhibition Hall, and this is the starting point of the Zengjiayan Cliff Trail.

Special Garden Gate Photography by Huang Zuwei

Teyuan "was the former residence of the famous patriotic and democratic figure Xian Ying during the Anti Japanese War, also known as Teyuan due to Xian Ying's character" Te Sheng ". At the end of 1938, under the political pressure of the Kuomintang, many people were unwilling to contact the Communist Party and dared not provide venues for its activities in order to avoid trouble. Dong Biwu and Zhou Enlai visited Xianying at the special park. Xianying said calmly, "I have always had the ambition to serve the country. Today, Mr. Zhou and Mr. Dong have been so sincere and willing to go to the national crisis together. I am willing and not afraid,

Teyuan has become an important venue for the Southern Bureau of the Communist Party of China to carry out united front work in Chongqing.

Special Garden Interior Photography by Huang Zuwei

Special Garden nameplate photography/Youlik

With the support of the Southern Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in March 1941, Huang Yanpei, Zhang Lan, Liang Shuming, Luo Longji, and others secretly established the Chinese Democratic Political League Alliance in Teyuan, and set up their headquarters in Teyuan. Huang Yanpei served as the chairman (Zhang Lan succeeded him after Huang Yanpei resigned). Zhang Lan, Liang Shuming, and others were stationed in Teyuan, and Feng Yuxiang, who was then the Vice Chairman of the Military Commission of the Nationalist Government, borrowed No. 2 Kangzhuang in Teyuan as the official residence in the city. Due to the large number of people from all walks of life who went to Teyuan, Teyuan always had flowing tables, with daily foot traffic ranging from thousands to hundreds. Xianying and his family invested their wealth to support China's democratic progress in World War II, and he was known as the "Mengchang Jun" of Chongqing. In 1945, Mao Zedong came to Chongqing for negotiations and visited the Special Park three times; In the late 1940s, General Feng Yuxiang generously wrote a plaque to present the "House of Democracy", which is now housed in the Red Rock Revolution Memorial Hall.

Those who have walked on the Zengjiayan Trail before

Within a 15 minute walk from a side door of the special park, you can reach the Zhou Mansion.

On January 16, 1939, according to the decision of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Southern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, with Comrade Zhou Enlai as its secretary, was officially established in Chongqing. Due to the fact that the Southern Bureau is a secret agency of the Party, located within the Chongqing office of the Eighth Route Army. In February 1939, Deng Yingchao rented a small building at No. 50 Zengjiayan under the name of Zhou Enlai, Deputy Minister of the Political Department of the Military Commission of the National Government, and called it the "Zhou Mansion" to the outside world. But in fact, this is the office of the Southern Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in the city. Here, comrades from the Southern Bureau spent countless sleepless nights. Ye Jianying, Qiao Guanhua, and Gong Peng, who were once in their prime, were also permanent residents of Xiaolou.

Zhou Gongguan Photography/You Lick

The Southern Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China undertakes the important task of leading the Communist Party organizations and the people's anti Japanese armed forces in the areas under the rule of the Kuomintang, consolidating and developing the anti Japanese national united front, creatively implementing the Party Central Committee's policy of "developing progressive forces, winning over intermediate forces, and isolating stubborn forces", engaging in rational, advantageous, and orderly struggles with the stubborn faction of the Kuomintang, maintaining the overall unity of the Anti Japanese War, and making important contributions to winning the victory of the Anti Japanese War and promoting the Liberation War.

Zhou Gongguan Corner Photography/You Lick

Whether it was Zhou Enlai visiting democratic figures and reporters at the special park, or democratic figures from various political parties visiting Zhou Enlai from the special park, they would always turn back along the old path of the Zengjiayan Trail. In the stormy years, people who walked along the old path of the Zengjiayan Cliff Trail had even more famous names.

Photography of Premier Zhou's Bronze Statue by You Lick

Coming out of the glass walled intersection of Jingxiu Middle School today, crossing the road and going uphill, Building 2 of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China was called Meiling Building in 1945. Starting from September 27th, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party held four talks here.

Across from Meiling Building is Guiyuan. Guiyuan is located at another exit of the cliff facing trail in Zengjiayan. It is the mansion of Kuomintang General Zhang Zhizhong. When he moved in in 1939, Zhang Zhizhong personally planted osmanthus trees and named the small courtyard Guiyuan. During the negotiations in Chongqing in August 1945, General Zhang Zhi gave Guiyuan to Mao Zedong for use, and Guiyuan became the main venue for Chinese Communist Party negotiators such as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai during the negotiations in Chongqing. Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai met with various political parties and people from all walks of life here multiple times.

Guiyuan Photography/Youlik

After 43 days of negotiations, the Kuomintang was forced to agree to the policy of peace, democracy, and unity proposed by the Chinese Communist Party. On October 10, 1945, representatives from both sides signed the "Minutes of Talks between the Government and Chinese Communist Representatives" in the Guiyuan living room, known as the "Double Tenth Agreement". The activity photos of Comrade Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai during the negotiations in Chongqing include their group photo in the Zengjiayan area. On the day of the agreement signing, reporters from Xinhua Daily and Liberation Daily gathered here, and news reports quickly spread throughout the country through telegrams from the Shangqing Temple Post Office, bringing a brief peace to the devastated country.

This is the post office that witnesses everything and spreads everything.

Guiyuan Interior Photography/Yulike

The underground exit on the trail

This post office, which witnesses everything and spreads everything, requires a three minute walk from the side gate on the other side of the special park. The distance from Teyuan to Shangqing Temple Post Office, Guiyuan, Meilinglou, Zhou Gongguan... is roughly the total distance of Zengjiayan Cliff Trail.

Photography of the former site of Shangqing Temple Post Office by You Lick

As the Secretary of the Southern Bureau, Zhou Enlai led the leaders and staff of the Southern Bureau to meet with foreign diplomats, aid agencies, and journalists at the Zhou Mansion, making friends, promoting the various propositions of the Communist Party of China, and explaining the important contributions of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army in the Anti Japanese War with a large number of facts and written materials.

The cliff facing trail is like a parallel line, connecting the ridges on the mountain and river side of these locations.

Back then, along this road, the residences of Chiang Kai shek and Soong Mei ling were about the width of a road. The Southern Bureau worked in the Zhou Mansion, and the neighbor's name was Dai Li... Fei Zhengqing, who was then the director of the press office of the US Embassy in China, humorously referred to the "Zhou Mansion" as a "sandwich made up of communists and Nationalist Party spies". The special park was crowded with friends every day, and patriotic people from all sides spoke out here to promote unity and resistance, and to promote the consolidation and development of the anti Japanese national united front.

Weimin Road Photography/Youlik

The building on this side, built against the mountain, has a more secretive relationship with the Zengjiayan Trail.

Starting from 1938, Japan carried out a strategic bombing of Chongqing for five and a half years, and the Zengjiayan Cliff Trail naturally became the focus of Japanese bombing.

Zengjiayan No. 50, which was destroyed by Japanese planes

The residential houses in Zengjiayan area collapsed by Japanese planes

Since 1939, private air raid shelters have been a must-have for slightly larger middle-class families in Chongqing. Special Garden, Zhou Mansion, Guiyuan, and Meilinglou all have independent escape routes. The secret passage of Guiyuan is behind the house, and the secret passage of Zhou Gongguan is in the courtyard, which leads all the way to the air raid shelter. Another intersection of the air raid shelter leads directly to the Jialing River.

Up to now, strolling along the second phase of the Zengjiayan Cliff Trail, you can still see three caves on the cliff wall, with blue brick arches tightly closed. According to old residents, this was the place where they used to hide from bombings and spies. If that's really the case, it could be said to be an excellent hiding place in the dense forest back then. During the renovation of the pedestrian walkway in Shangqingsi Street, the holes were cleaned again and the entrances and wooden doors were specially made to make it cleaner and tidier.

Legend has it that this is a photo of the entrance and exit of an old escape route on the cliff facing trail, taken by Yulike

The fragrance of books on the Zengjiayan Trail and Yuan Longping

The negotiations were in full swing, with agreements torn apart, bombers coming and going, and alarms sounding and stopping, but the sound of books along the Zengjiayan Trail never stopped.

The Jin Ji Lu Yu Military Region Cadre Children's School, founded in Handan, Hebei in 1945, followed Liu Deng's army southward to Chongqing. In 1950, it was renamed as the Southwest Bureau Directly Affiliated Cadre Children's School, located between Teyuan and Zhou Gongguan. Liu Bocheng, who was then the chairman of the Southwest Military and Political Commission, named and wrote the school motto, and He Long, the commander of the Southwest Military Region, served as the first chairman of the school. Deng Xiaoping's wife Zhuo Lin served as the principal, and Deng Pufang and Deng Lin, the children of Deng Xiaoping and Zhuo Lin, were also students of the school.

Now its name is the well-known "People's Primary School" among Chongqing citizens.

The picture of the entrance of Renmin Elementary School is from the internet

Chongqing Jingxiu Middle School, located a hundred meters away, had students boarding as early as 1891. In 1914, Liu Bocheng entered Chongqing Jingxiu School as a military sports instructor, and at the age of 16, Zhang Daqian also left his hometown and entered the school to study; In 1949, one of the founders of modern Chinese national orchestral music, Peng Xiuwen, graduated from the Jingxiu Commercial Vocational School under the Jingxiu School; In 1955, Ganjiang Middle School, where Yuan Longping studied, was also merged into Jingxiu; In 1956, student Pang Zhonghua enrolled

In October 1985, Deng Yingchao returned to No. 50 Zengjiayan and waved to the crowd at the entrance

Jingxiu Middle School Old Building

From the 1940s to today, both schools have branch roads connecting to the Zengjiayan Trail. Students go to school, and the Mountain City Trail is one of the main routes. As a young student, in the prime of his life, the sound of books during class and the playful pursuits during breaks filled this path with the fragrance of books.

Jingxiu Middle School's New Glass Wall Photography by You Lick

The unbeatable river scenery of the cliff facing trail is completely different from back then: there was no Yangtze River Bridge, no towering buildings, no light rail passing by suddenly, no two-way four lane road, and no bustling traffic. Even the riverbank changed its appearance after the Three Gorges Dam was filled with water.

But those scholars are still full of spirit, the smoke of war that permeates under the bombing, the swords of negotiation spirit, and every time they escape from the mountains, why aren't those former students walking on the same mountain ridge?

Find the secret to growing up in Chongqing here

Zhongshan Fourth Road is rated by netizens as the "most beautiful street in Chongqing", and since the filming of "Dear You", this influence has expanded to the whole country. We cannot assert whether the evaluations from netizens are authoritative, but there is no doubt that this is the only street that does not rely on any commercial district support, but only stands out among tourists based on its own charm.

The Most Beautiful Four Road Photography/Youlik

Closely connected to this road is the Zengjiayan Cliff Trail. For the row of residents on the ridge, the Zengjiayan Trail was even one of the more important pedestrian pathways before the renovation was completed. Because before the renovation of Zhongshan Fourth Road, the entire street was linear and curved, with low rise and multi story buildings on both sides of the street. In fact, the politicians and wealthy people of that time lived on the mountain ridge.

Cliff Trail Observation Deck Photography/Yulike

Before the renovation, the cliff facing walkway of Zengjiayan was mixed with dangerous houses and cultural relics, and the wind and wind figures recorded in books and the current smoke and fire of the market mixed together, making people's emotions complicated. The renovated Zengjiayan Cliff Trail is approximately 1.8 kilometers long and will be implemented in two phases. It will be completed on New Year's Day 2023.

The "bamboo slips" on the cliff path record the origin of Shangqing Temple. Photography by You Lick

This is a district upgrade spanning over ten years.

The renovation of Zhongshan Fourth Road began in 2008, and even earlier, Zhongshan Fourth Road was the first street in the city to dismantle electric poles and relocate its pipeline network underground. Before 2008, the road surface of Zhongshan Fourth Road was only 12 meters wide, and the main road was only 800 meters long, but there were 5 alleyways connected to the Zengjiayan Trail.

Cliff Trail Photography/Yulike

In this New Year, can we say that these cliff facing and river watching trails, winding paths leading to secluded paths, and leisurely gardens have enabled us to once again touch the urban background.

In Chongqing, a city with mountains, waters, and rich temperament, explore the secrets of overall urban planning, preventing fragmented construction, and allowing the city to grow organically.

Photography of the Entrance of Binjiang Road on the Cliff Walkway/Yulike