1921July 1921 · Xintiandi, Shanghai

First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party

Grey-brick shikumen house fronts with carved red lintels at the First Congress site in Shanghai — Photo: ScareCriterion12. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In July 1921 thirteen delegates, Mao Zedong among them, met with two Comintern advisers in a terraced house in Shanghai's French Concession to found the Chinese Communist Party. When a stranger looked in on the meeting they dispersed, and finished the congress on a pleasure boat on South Lake in Jiaxing. The party they founded has ruled China since 1949.

Political History
Revolutions & Resistance
Shanghai, China

Sites

Site 1: Memorial of the First National Congress of the CPCThe restored shikumen house and a large museum beside it.Map ↗
Site 2: South Lake (Nanhu), JiaxingA replica of the boat moored where the congress ended.Map ↗