Lǎo jiē yī shí, shí shàng yǒu hóng; dà shān yī yè, yè lǐ yǒu dēng. — The old street’s every stone carries red on it; the great mountain’s every night keeps a lamp within.
Tucheng Red Army Old Street (土城红军老街, Tǔchéng Hóngjūn Lǎojiē) is a 4A-rated (December 2021) heritage quarter on Tucheng Road in Gecheng Street — the county seat’s preserved revolutionary quarter, where the old street’s timber houses carry the memory of the Sichuan-Shaanxi revolutionary base (川陕革命根据地), of which Chengkou formed the eastern wing. Entry is free. The street is the county’s history layer: red banners and old house fronts, memorial displays in situ, and a lane pattern that predates all of it.
Chengkou’s position explains the street. The county sits deep in the Daba Mountains on the old route between Sichuan and Shaanxi — remote, defensible, and poor in exactly the way that made it revolutionary ground in the early 1930s, when the Red Army’s Sichuan-Shaanxi base held this flank. The old street keeps the physical setting of that period: the houses the organisers used, the lanes they walked, the scale of a mountain market town of the era. The displays are modest and local rather than monumental.
The street is an evening walk as much as a morning visit — locals use it as the county seat’s public living room, and the memorial displays read differently with the lanterns on. Pair it with the Soviet Regime Memorial Park (苏维埃政权纪念公园, free, 09:00–17:00) on the hill above the county seat, which overlooks the whole town and completes the revolutionary-base picture in an hour.
flowcloud would say that the county’s deepest history is written in the cheapest ink — free streets, free parks, and a mountain town that kept its own record.
Practicalities
- Rating: 4A (graded December 2021)
- Tickets: free
- Address: Tucheng Road, Gecheng Street, county seat
- Getting there: in-town; the memorial park is a short climb above the seat ⚠️ (checked October 2026, subject to change)
- Time needed: 1–2 hours for the street; add an hour for the park above
Words and Names
土城 Tǔchéng — Tucheng, the old quarter’s name · 红军 Hóngjūn — the Red Army, whose Sichuan-Shaanxi base included Chengkou · 川陕革命根据地 Chuān-Shǎn Gémìng Gēnjùdì — the Sichuan-Shaanxi revolutionary base · 苏维埃 Sūwéi’āi — soviet, the early council-form regime name kept in the memorial park’s title