Hubei Province, Baokang County, Baifeng Wu Family Manor

Seeking Strength on Solid Rock—A Visit to Wu Defeng's Former Residence Turning past the last mountain ridge, gray-blue stone walls suddenly appear amidst the lush green peaks. The Wu Family Manor sits perched atop a massive rock like a crouching tiger, with the winding Green Dragon Ridge embracing it on the left and the sheer cliffs of White Tiger Cliff supporting it on the right, possessing a unique presence between heaven and earth. Pushing open the mottled wooden door with its copper studs, a giant rock rises abruptly in the center of the courtyard, its dragon scale-like patterns faintly visible beneath the moss. Ascending the green stone steps, the main house comes into view, its sixteen vermillion-lacquered pillars supporting carved wooden windows, and remnants of gilded cloud patterns still visible among the brackets. Inside the side rooms, old copper lamps hang draped with cobwebs, and the gauze curtains of the wooden beds are tinged with the dusky yellow of age. Suddenly, an old map catches the eye, hanging on the east wall, the red lines of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui-Soviet Area still as striking as the beacon fires of yesteryear. Touching the rough texture of the Dragon and Tiger Rock in the courtyard, one can almost hear the words of Wu Defeng, then director of the Central Transportation Bureau, as he bid farewell to his comrades on that cold night in 1930: "Revolutionaries should be like solid rock, unyielding in the face of wind and rain." Now, though the moss on the rock has grown thick, that unwavering resolve still echoes through the mountains.