Sihang Warehouse: The Bullet Holes on Its West Wall

Basic information

The name: why "Sihang"

Sihang Warehouse was built nearly a hundred years ago with the joint money of four banks — Yanye, Jincheng, Zhongnan and Dalu.

"Sihang" = the four banks. Its original trade was a vault; in 1937 it became a battlefield.

October 1937: a small patch of "the last fortress"

On 13 August 1937 the Battle of Shanghai began. By late October:

• On 25 October the Dachang line fell;
• On 26 October the deputy commander of the 524th Regiment of the 262nd Brigade, 88th Division, Xie Jinyuan, was ordered to hold Zhabei with more than 420 officers and men, covering the withdrawal of the main force;
• before dawn on 27 October they moved into Sihang Warehouse on the north bank of Suzhou Creek.

Militarily and geographically, Sihang Warehouse stood in a very particular place:

• it was on the north bank of Suzhou Creek, with only a river between it and the British concession;
• it was the "last fortress" of Shanghai's central city area — by then the main body of the Chinese army had already withdrawn to the south of Suzhou Creek.

A Xinhua News Agency report summed its position up very tellingly: "Sihang Warehouse, where the headquarters of the 88th Division was, became the 'last fortress' of Shanghai's central city area."

Three things that happened in four days

One: Chen Shusheng leaps from the building

On 28 October the Japanese attacked Sihang Warehouse with tanks covering the infantry.

In the thick of the fighting, a soldier of only 21, Chen Shusheng, saw the enemy digging a hole at the foot of the warehouse wall, preparing to plant explosives and blow the wall down.

The situation was desperate. Chen Shusheng strapped grenades all over his body, pulled the fuse, threw himself down from a fifth-floor window, and perished together with the enemy.

He left a message written in blood on a white undershirt, for his old mother far away in the Daba Mountains of Sichuan: "To lay down one's life for righteousness — that is your son's wish!"

Two: 298 farewell letters

In the lulls between fighting, the "Eight Hundred Heroes" wrote 298 farewell letters in the cold, dank warehouse — to wives and children, to parents. Xie Jinyuan's granddaughter Xie Jun says:

"For the young soldiers, this may have been the first family letter of their lives, and also the last …"

Three: that national flag

The girl guide Yang Huimin, risking her life under shellfire, carried a Chinese national flag into Xie Jinyuan's hands. When the flag rose over Sihang Warehouse, the citizens watching the battle from across the river shouted "Long live the Chinese nation!" and "Victory in the war of resistance is certain!"

Gains and costs

Sihang Warehouse was made into a film and written into school textbooks not only because the fighting was savage, but because behind it lay the political calculation of the Nine-Power Treaty conference: China hoped that the tragic stand of this lone force would buy Western support at the international conference.

The result was that the West asked the Chinese delegation to withdraw from the conference. The blood of the Eight Hundred Heroes bought an emptiness in diplomacy.

Sihang Warehouse today

The west wall

The west wall is the most irreplaceable part of the building. The mottled bullet holes and shell marks on the wall are kept in their original historical state, and are the most direct physical evidence of the fighting that year.

A Xinhua reporter's description is apt: "The setting sun slants across the mottled west wall of Sihang Warehouse, a deep crimson like blood."

The memorial square and visiting

• A memorial square stands by Jinyuan Road, on the east side of the warehouse;
• visitors often lay flowers, cakes, or a flask of wine and a cigarette in front of the west wall;
• at the entrance to the memorial, the family letter Xie Jinyuan wrote to his wife "Qiaoying" is on display (a copy of the original).

An interesting contrast

The Guangfu Road and Jinyuan Road area around Sihang Warehouse is a very quiet place today. Standing on the north bank of Suzhou Creek and looking south, you see the Nanjing East Road sub-district of Huangpu District — Shanghai's busiest commercial quarter.

Across one river: on one side a warehouse riddled with bullet holes, on the other the crowds coming and going on Nanjing Road. This contrast is itself a history lesson.

Nearby, to see in the same trip

• Jinyuan Road: formerly "Manzhou Road", renamed to commemorate Xie Jinyuan (see Appendix 1);
• Jinyuan Park (formerly Jiaozhou Park): separated from the lone force's camp by a single wall, the tomb of Xie Jinyuan was once built here (in 1983 the tomb was moved to the International Cemetery);
• the north-bank walkway of Suzhou Creek: walk a stretch of it and you feel "north and south of the river", Shanghai's urban dividing line;
• the former site of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce (west side of North Suzhou Road and Henan North Road, built in 1915): on the other side of the road.

Practical tips

• The memorial is free (subject to official notice);
• allow more than 1 hour; don't just look at the west wall and leave;
• as you read the displays on the wall, note the inscriptions by Xie Jinyuan and Yang Ruifu: Xie Jinyuan — "With one gun and one bullet I will fight the Japanese bandits to the end"; the battalion commander Yang Ruifu — "With one soldier and one bullet left, I swear to fight for the survival of the Chinese nation".

Sources: the course of the fighting and the figures follow Xie Jinyuan and the "Eight Hundred Heroes": A Lone Force's Bloody Battle at Sihang on China Military Online, the Xinhua News Agency's Sunset over Suzhou Creek: A Visit to the Shanghai Sihang Warehouse War of Resistance Memorial, and the Xinhua Net piece Behind the Bloody Battle of the Songhu Eight Hundred Heroes; the history of the building follows Xinhua News Agency reports. The full bibliography is in Appendix 4.