Visit Wusi Street and Start a Cultural Journey

Beijing Wusi Street is located east of the central axis, named after the Red Building of Peking University on the north side of the street that was once the birthplace of the May Fourth Movement. There is life, art, modern history, and prosperity.

Peking University Red Building 

In the autumn of 1918, a building combining Chinese and Western architectural styles was erected in the Han Garden of Beijing Shatan. The exterior of the building is red brick and red tile, which is figuratively called the "Red Building". It is the location of the liberal arts, library and campus of National Peking University. The library is located on the first floor of the Red Building, and the office of Li Dazhao, then director of Peking University Library, is located in the southeast corner of the first floor. During this period, the situation at home and abroad changed rapidly. Li Dazhao took the library of the Red Building as a base to organize and lead the progressive youth of Peking University to carry out research and dissemination of Marxism, and to establish the Communist Party of China. The Red Building of Peking University has thus become one of the important birthplaces of the Communist Party of China. Mao Zedong also worked and studied in the Red Building. In October 1918, Mao Zedong was recommended by his mentor Yang Changji to work as a librarian in the second reading room of Peking University Library. At that time, Mao Zedong was responsible for registering the names of newly arrived newspapers and readers and managing 15 Chinese and foreign language newspapers.

The large playground on the north side of the Red Building of Peking University has a resounding name - Democracy Square; The iron bell outside the back door of the Red Building of Peking University also has a resounding name - the Freedom Bell. On May 4, 1919, the bell of patriotism and democracy rang here, and a procession composed of patriotic students set off from the playground of the Red Building to Tiananmen Square. The epoch-making May Fourth Movement broke out.

More than a hundred years ago, the revolutionary prologue was unveiled here. More than 100 years later, the revolutionary gene is passed down here. The Red Building carries revolutionary history and spirit.

Address: No. 29, Wusi Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing

Translator: BAO Minmin

Reviewer: LIU Yu