19377 July 1937 · Wanping, Fengtai, Beijing

Marco Polo Bridge Incident

Rows of carved stone lions on the balustrade of the Marco Polo Bridge — Photo: 陈鹰. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

On the night of 7 July 1937 Japanese troops on exercises near the Lugou (Marco Polo) Bridge, south-west of Beijing, exchanged fire with Chinese soldiers in the walled town of Wanping. Neither side backed down, and within weeks the clash had become full-scale war between China and Japan, which merged into the Second World War and cost millions of Chinese lives.

Military & Battlefields
Beijing, China

Sites

Site 1: Marco Polo (Lugou) BridgeTwelfth-century stone bridge lined with hundreds of carved lions.Map ↗
Site 2: Wanping Fortress and War of Resistance museumWalls still scarred by shellfire, and China's national museum of the war.Map ↗