Gouba is known as the place where “a barn lantern illuminates China”. On the night of March 10, 1935, Mao Zedong with a barn lantern in hand, found Zhou Enlai along the path and persuaded him to revoke the order to attack Daguxinchang the next day. Later, the intelligence reported that Daguxinchang had been surrounded. This decision saved the Red Army and the Chinese Revolution at a critical moment.

Today’s Gouba Red Culture Tourism Scenic Area continues to promote the integration of agriculture, tourism and culture. The core area of the scenic area is Gouba Village, Huamao Village and Tuba Village. The attractions include Gouba Conference Site, Gouba Conference Exhibition Hall, Jiangxin Garden, Maple Garden, Jiufeng Ecological Farm, Huamao Pottery Culture Street and Huamao Paper Making Workshop.

Gouba conference site is an old-style farmhouse. The meeting room, kitchen, bedroom and other rooms have been restored with the original furnishings. The landscape around the house has witnessed the historical changes. When you walk into the meeting site, there is a pair of shabby straw shoes by the simple bed. In front of the telegraph room, an old telegraphy seems to be transmitting the urgent military information.

The Gouba Conference was the sequel to the Zunyi Conference and the key point of ensuring the success of the Four Crossings of Chishui. The establishment of the three-member military group consolidated Mao Zedong’s position as the core of the Party and the Red Army and became the historical starting point for establishing Mao’s leadership and command position in his revolutionary career. In early March of 1935, the columns of the Central Red Army Military Committee were stationed in Gouba, while the General Political Department of the Red Army, the State Political Defense Bureau, the Soviet Bank, the newsroom of the newspaper Red Star, and the Central Red Army organs were stationed deep in the foothills at the north of Gouba. From March 11 to 12 of 1935, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting in Gouba of Zunyi County to discuss the Red Army’s military operations, the Red Army’s next strategic direction and reorganization of the central military leadership. The meeting adopted Mao Zedong’s views, withdrew the plan to attack Daguxinchang (now Jinsha County), and formulated a new strategic direction to enable the Red Army to achieve a strategic shift. The conference decided to form a new “three-member military group” consisting of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Wang Jiaxiang, with Zhou Enlai as the leader, to command the military operations of the whole army. In the war environment at that time, the “three-member military group” was the most important leading institution.

At the end of November 2013, the construction of the Gouba Conference Exhibition Hall started, and it was completed in October 2014. It is divided into two floors and the one in the shape of a barn lantern is the exhibition hall, which houses a large number of historical relics, documents, and pictures. At the same time, it also uses sculptures, paintings, as well as multimedia to comprehensively display the life and work of Red Army in Zunyi during the hard and glorious years.

Gouba Red Cultural Tourism Scenic Area takes the meeting site of Gouba as the core, integrating various tourism forms such as recreation and health, ecological sports, ethnic culture experience, rural experience, etc. It aims to become a new “calling card” of Zunyi red tourism.