Jiefangbei

Jiefangbei is the crossing of Minzu, Minquan and Zou Rong roads, where a monument stands in a pedestrian square lined with department stores and towers. The first structure on the spot was the Spiritual Bastion, a timber tower 7 zhang 7 chi high — about 26 metres, the height standing for the incident of 7 July 1937 — begun in 1940 and finished on 31 December 1941. The stone monument replaced it: begun on 31 October 1946 and completed on 10 October 1947, with a shaft 24 metres high and a 140-step spiral stair. In 1950 Liu Bocheng wrote the name it carries now. The shopping square was completed in 1997.