In the center of Zhengzhou, there is a towering and upright building - the Erqi Memorial Tower. It is not only a landmark building in Zhengzhou, but also a spiritual tower for the people of Zhengzhou.
The Erqi Memorial Tower was built to commemorate the martyrs who sacrificed their lives during the 1923 Beijing Hankou Railway Workers' Strike. On February 1, 1923, the workers of the Beijing Hankou Railway held the founding ceremony of the General Union of Trade Unions in Zhengzhou, but were destroyed by warlord Wu Peifu. On February 4th, workers on the entire Beijing Hankou Railway went on a general strike. On February 7th, reactionary warlords brutally suppressed the striking workers, creating the shocking "27 Incident" that shocked both China and the world. 52 comrades including Lin Xiangqian and Shi Yang heroically sacrificed their lives. On October 15, 1926, Wang Shengyou and Si Wende, the leaders of the Zhengzhou Division of the Beijing Hankou Railway, were also killed by the enemy near Changchun Bridge.
In order to commemorate the martyrs, in 1951, the Zhengzhou Municipal People's Government expanded the site of Changchun Bridge into Erqi Square and built a wooden tower inside the square. In the summer of 1971, the wooden tower collapsed. On July 1st of the same year, the Zhengzhou Municipal Government started rebuilding the Erqi Memorial Tower on its original site. It was completed on September 29th and officially opened to the public on October 1st.
The Erqi Memorial Tower is 63 meters high and has 14 floors. It is a reinforced concrete structure with antique style twin towers. The plane of the tower is in two pentagons parallel, with a unique shape. Each floor has eaves and corners, and green glazed tiles cover the roof, making it magnificent and spectacular. There is a bell tower at the top of the tower, and a large bell with a diameter of 2.7 meters on six sides plays the music "The East is Red". On one side of the tower is a spiral staircase, and on the other side is an exhibition room, displaying exhibitions of the Beijing Hankou Railway Strike and various temporary exhibitions. Through materials such as physical objects, pictures, and text, the magnificent history of that period is introduced in detail.
In 1986, the Erqi Memorial Tower was announced as a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit, and in 2006, it was announced by the State Council as the sixth batch of national key cultural relic protection units. It is not only a patriotic education base for primary and secondary schools nationwide, but also an excellent socialist education base. The Erqi Memorial Tower carries the "Erqi Spirit", witnesses the development and changes of Zhengzhou, and inspires generation after generation of Zhengzhou people to move forward bravely.
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