I went to Huang Pu Military Academy this afternoon. Originally, I plan to take a boat to LianHua (lotus) mountain. When the taxi arrived at the鱼珠码头 (yuzhu) port, I was told that the boat to LianHua Mountain is no longer in service. To my surprise, I found that the Huang Pu military Academy is just across the river in the ChangDao (long) island.
I rode the ferry across the Pearl River. The cost is 1.5RMB. The Huang Pu Military Academy is just 50 meters from the landing port. The academy was build by the founding father of modern China, Dr. Sun Yet-Sen, for the purpose of building a modern military for China. There are four main attractions on the island:
1: The Dr. Sun Yet-Sen’s resident.
2: The Huang Pu military academy
3: The Dr. Sun Yet-Sen’s memorial
4: The memorial tombs of the Chinese navy in battle 1950
I first went to the Dr. Sun Yet-Sen’s resident. It was a two story yellow brick building on the front of the river bank. The court yard is now converted into a navy installment. The building where Dr. Sun Yat Sen supposedly stayed is now the exhibition of his life. There are some navy ships docked not far from the building. There are clear signs on the fence warming photography of the navy ships.
Compared with Dr. Sun's residence, the Huang Pu military academy is much more grand and meaningful. Since it was a Sunday afternoon, there were lost of visitors. This main gate in the photo is actually a reproduction in 1992. The original main gate and much of the site were destroyed by Japanese bombers during the World War II. There are exhibition halls displaying the artifacts of the academy and its influential members such as Jiang kai shek，Zhou Nenlai, Nie RongZhen, etc (a who is who in modem Chinese history).
Exited the Huang Pu military academy, I went to see the Dr Sun Yat Sen memorial. It was build in1927. The Dr. Sun’s bronze statue on top of the hill was donated by one of his close Japanese friend who also build three other identical bronze statues. Today, these statues are scattered in China with one in NanJing, one in HongKong and the other in ZhongShan University in GuangZhou。 The site was build as a memorial to Dr. Sun's achievement. The monument overlooks the Pearl River and the City of Guangzhou.
Last, I went to see the memorial tombs of the Chinese navy soliders who died in battle in 1950. The memorial was build with granite. The area is very clean however the road leading the tombs is run down, a clear sign of lack of maintenance.
After visiting the ChangDao island, I ride the boat to新洲码头, Xing Zhou port. From there, I took bus 137. I got off from the TianHe south gate. I came back to the excitement of the modem economy, very different than the quite life in the ChangDao Island where the Huang Pu academy is. Today's world is totally different than the ones when the Huang Pu academy had its first enrollment back in 1921.
