Shijiazhuang Things to Do

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This large park is located in the city centre on the corner of Zhongshan Donglu and Jianshe Beidajie. The park features a large lake, bridges and pavilions. I came here in the afternoon after visiting Zhengding and sat by the lakes bank and a group of Chinese students came over to me and practiced their English with me.

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Norman Bethune (1890-1939) was born in Ontario, Canada and in 1938 travelled to Yan'an in the Shanbei region of Shaanxi province in China. There he joined the Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong in their struggle against the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Bethune performed emergency battlefield surgical operations on war casualties and established training for doctors, nurses and orderlies. He did not distinguish between casualties, treating wounded Japanese prisoners as well as Chinese. He became well known in the west following his death when Mao Zedong published his essay entitled In Memory of Norman Bethune, which documented the final months of the doctor's life in China. These words, said be Mao, adorn his tomb:

"What kind of spirit is this that makes a foreigner selflessly adopt the cause of the Chinese people's liberation as his own? It is the spirit of internationalism, the spirit of communism, from which every Chinese Communist must learn".

He is buried in this tomb in the Revolutionary Martyrs' Mausoleum and there are some of his items in a memorial hall nearby.

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The Revolutionary Martyrs' Mausoleum is located along the main east-west road called Zhongshan Xilu, to the west of the city centre. In its grounds is the tomb of Dr Norman Bethune who joined the Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong in their struggle against the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War. There's also a memorial hall and an exhibition hall on Bethune and an Indian doctor called Basu.

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This vast museum was closed when I visited in July 2008 which was a real shame as it's about the only thing worth visiting in the city. There were some new buildings being built behind the exisiting main museum building and the whole museum is set to re-open in 2010.

However, there were a couple of exhibitions on the ground floor that were open. The first one, (on the right as you walk through the entrance), was about city planning with models, photos, plans and information. This wasn't all that interesting but did give an insight into how vast cities in China develop. The other exhibition (on the left as you walk through the entrance), proved to be a big surprise and was very interesting. It was all about "The Truth of the Lhasa Riot on March 14 History and Today of Tibet" that happened when I was in China in March 2008 and stopped me visiting Tibet. The exhibition was purely a large amount of photos taken at the time of the riots showing Tibetan people and monks rioting in the streets against the Chinese Army. Then there were photos of Tibetans in more peaceful times and situations to show how they're meant to enjoy living there under Chinese rule. To foreigners who know the political situation in Tibet and who know the "bigger picture", the exhibition seemed, to me, to show Tibetans in a negative light so that everyday Chinese would lean more towards their governments point-of-view rather than that of the Tibetans.