Huangpu Military Academy

Written by Sally Guo Updated Jul. 15, 2021

Huangpu Military Academy was the first military academy established at the Changzhou Island in Huangpu District, the east suburb of Guangzhou, with the aim of training military officials during the period of first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.

In May 1924, Sun Zhongshan first established the Huangpu Military Academy with the help of the Communist Party of China and the Soviet Union in order to train military officials for revolution. It turned out to be a great success with many famous generals from both the Communist Party and the Kuomintang receiving their training there. The military academy has set up the system of both general party membership and political jobs.

The headmaster of the academy was Jiang Jieshi, with Liao Zhongkai as the representative of the party, Zhou Enlai as the director of the politics department, Ye Jianying as the vice director of the teaching department, and with some communists such as Xiong Xiong, Yun Daiying, Xiao Chunv, Nie Rongzhen, and Zhang Qiuren responsible for the teaching activities and other terms of tasks.

There were several subjects available in school, for example, the courses for training infantry, artillery, sapper, impedimenta troops, military policeman, as well as the subject of politics. There were altogether four grades of 4,981 students graduating from Huangpu Military Academy before Jiang Jieshi staged the "Coup of April 12th" in 1927. However, those graduates took the lead to constitute the revolutionary army and took part in the battle for unifying Guangzhou and the Northern Expedition War.

Now at the former site of the military academy, you can find the school gate, Zhongshan monument, Zhongshan former residence, military academy club, and military swimming pool, and so on.

The Zhongshan monument which was set up in 1928 majestically erected at a mound in the campus with the statue of Sun Zhongshan on the top of the monument presented by Japanese friends and the pedestal of the monument inscribing the Lesson from the Prime Minister and the Compliment on the Statue of Prime Minister.

Zhongshan's former residence is a two-storied house, part of which has now been changed into the exhibition house for the historic materials about Huangpu Military Academy. Besides, there is the eastward fight martyr's tomb at the mound of the southwest campus.

The former site of Huangpu Military Academy was bombed during China's War of Resistance against Japan (1937-1945) and was recovered in 1964. Now as a key cultural unit of state protection and an important base for patriotism education in Guangzhou, the former site of Huangpu Military Academy has many attractions such as the Zhongshan monument, the bronze statue of Sun Zhongshan, Sun Zhongshan memorial hall, the school buildings, and the exhibition house for the historic record of Huangpu Military Academy.

Opening Hours: 9:00 – 17:00, close every Monday.
How to Get There?

Take buses No. 43, 210, 227, and 292 at Tianhe bus station and get off at the Yuxie Hill bus stop; or take marine buses at the South Mansion station and get off at the Yuzhu Dock and then transfer to a ferry which charges RMB 1 yuan per person.