Besides the Mausoleum of 72 Martyrs, Guangzhou also boasts another modern martyrs memorial called Guangzhou Insurrectional Martyr Cemetery Park. Together with two friends, I decided to explore this site out of curiosity. The site is located not far from my relative's residence and is easily accessed by bus or MTR. If you take MTR, just stop at Martyrs’ Park station. I still remember passing by this place every time I took public bus to go to Yidelu. As I observed the site from inside the bus, I thought it was a grand Buddhist temple since it has red gates or a cultural park since it covers a massive area.
The park indeed offers solemn and beautiful view, making it such a grand place to pay tribute to the martyrs. Situated in an area of 186,000 square meters, the park is divided into two zones – the memorial and the garden. In many memorial buildings of the park, epigraphs by Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Deng Xiaoping,Ye Jianying and other leaders can be found. Some interesting points in the park include the Main Entrance Gate, Memorial Avenue, Guangzhou Insurrection Monument, Tomb of the Martyrs of Guangzhou Commune, Four Martyrs’ Tomb, Comrade Ye Jianying Monument, the Blood Sacrificed Xuanyuan Pavilion, Sino-North Korea Friendship Blood Sacrificed Pavilion, Sino-Soviet Friendship Blood Sacrificed Pavilion and other sites like Senior Citizens Activity Area, Children Playground, JianMei Sports Center, Skating Ground, Flower Hall and Land of Wonders. The best time to view the park is in the morning when the sun rises. As you watch the sun rises, you could see the monument is bathed with sun’s rays as if it carried the rising of revolutionary spirit.
Guangzhou Insurrectional Martyr Cemetery Park was constructed in 1954 to commemorate martyrs who died bravely and honorably during the Guangzhou Insurrection led by the Communist Party of China on December 11, 1927. Aiming to retaliate the existing government and continuing the revolution after the first failed revolutionary uprising, the Chinese Communist Party decided to launch another uprising in Guangzhou on November 26, 1927. A committed was formed with Zhang Tailei as the commander-in-chief. Zhang Tailei together with Ye Ting, Ye Jianying, Zhou Wenyong, Yun Daiying and Chen Yu, held a surprising assault to Kuomintang. Joining them were 150 Korean comrades including Choe Yong Gon and Soviet Consulate officials in Guangzhou. A Guangzhou-Soviet Government was also formed to centralize the political powers to Workers, Peasants and Red Army Soldiers. The armies boldly attacked the enemies and successfully conquered the city area on the northern side of the Pearl River. However, this condition only lasted for two days and the war did not cease here. Kuomintang helped by the imperialists attacked back with even a larger force. The situation worsened as Zhang Tailei was killed in the battle and the soldiers lost their leader. To rescue the action, they retreated from Guangzhou and went to Hai Lu Feng area, while the rest remained in Guangzhou and had to fight a bloody fight with the enemy. Most of them died a martyr's death. The massive attacks from Kuomintang resulted in the massacre of the communist armies, ending the war with multitude dead bodies lying on the ground and their blood flowing all over the Guanyin mountain and the banks of the Pearl River. Regretfully, the uprising ended in an ultimate failure resulting in the death of over 5700 people including international revolutionaries from the Soviet Union and Korea. Although the uprising only lasted for three days, it has given significant impact to the development of revolutionary movement in Guangzhou in search for people's government. Following the uprising, there were Nanchang uprising and Autumn Harvest uprising leading to independent war and people's army.
Opened to public in May 1958, the memorial park is as a national key protected site for martyrs monument that serves as an exemplary base for national patriotism education and a national education base for primary and secondary students. It is also listed as one of the national revolution tourism sites and protected sites for cultural relics of the Guangdong province. The park functions as a multifunctional park as it is not only a historical site but also a source of public education and sightseeing park. The park occasionally hosts horticulture, photography, calligraphy and art exhibitions too.
Majestic yet simple, the main entrance gate is made of white granite pedestals with red glazed tile. On the facade of the main entrance is engraved the sentence inscribed by Zhou Enlai himself stating “ Guangzhou Insurrectional Martyr Cemetery Park”. 
The red color is a symbol to pay tribute to the martyrs who gave up their lives in the movement
Stretching as far as 30 meters from the main gate, the memorial avenue is lined with dark green pine trees and cypresses on both sides. The park is even made more beautiful with the presence of 20 flowerbeds with vivid colors.
Since the park covers a massive area, there are many route options you could take. Instead of walking straight along the avenue to reach the Insurrection Monument, I and my friends decided to turn left first and found a museum there.
In the western part of the park stands the Museum of the Revolutionary History of Guangdong. Positioning in a total area of 2,000 square meters, the museum was prepared in 1957 and completed in 1959. It has a round top and two storeys. The museum keeps a collection of over 13,000 pieces of cultural relics and literature and over 13,000 photos recording the history of Guangzhou’s revolutionary movements for national independence from the Opium War in 1840 to the national liberation in 1949. Many important occasions took place in this museum. The museum used to be the place where revolutionists gathered to proclaim independence of Guangzhou on October, 1911, Sun Yat Sen was inaugurated, the second and third national congresses of Kuomintang were held, and Mao Ze Dong used to work.
The bridge in front of the museum
The meeting room inside the museum with a large picture of Sun Yat Sen in the middle and flags of various countries hanging across the room. 
The old books recording the history of Guangzhou’s revolution
Traditional weapons
This could be the Chinese flag used in the movement
This could be the canon used in the revolution struggle 
Old weapons, might be used during the revolutionary uprising
A display of Chinese traditional opera soap’s masks. Their faces look just like real people. I wonder what they become at night. hihi….
Ancient loom machine to produce fabric 
The entrance gate to the Four Martyrs Tomb. In the middle of the gate stands a stone tablet that records the history life of the four revolutionists. 
This site is the tomb of the four revolutionists, Wen Shengcai, Lin Guanci, Chen Jingyue and Zhong Mingguang, who sacrificed their lives during the revolution movement against the Qing Dynasty from 1911 to 1915.
Comrade Ye Jianying was a great proletarian revolutionist, statesman and military strategist. He was the vice commander-in-chief of the Red Army in the Guangzhou uprising, who pioneered the establishment of Guangzhou Red Political Power and Guangzhou Commune.
Tomb of the Martyrs of Guangzhou commune is the place where Hong Hua Gang was and where the martyrs from the first revolutionary uprising dead and were buried. The tomb measures 43 meters in diameter and 10.5 in height. In front of the tomb is located a stone tablet with Zhu De's inscription saying “Tomb of the Martyrs of Guangzhou Commune”. On the east tablet of the tomb is an inscription by the local government to give a brief description of Guangzhou uprising and its significance.
This pavilion was erected in 1957 to commemorate the two martyrs, Zhou Wenyong and Chen Tiejun who sacrificed their lives on this very spot. Xuanyuan pavilion is built in memory of the martyr's imperishable spirit of fighting for freedom, implying the profound meaning they will shed their blood for their motherland. 
Erected in 1964 to commemorate more than 150 Korean martyrs. The site has Korean architecture style. In the center of the pavilion is a stone stele inscribed with Chinese characters saying long lasting friendship between Chinese and Korean.
Erected in 1957 to commemorate Hasis, the vice consul of the Soviet Consulate and other members of the consulate who gave up their lives for the revolution. The building has ancient Chinese architecture with a lying stone in the form of a big book in front of it. On the left side of the stele engraved Chinese characters saying long lasting friendship between China and Soviet. 
The big book in front of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Blood Sacrificed Pavilion
As we kept exploring the park, we found a place that has a collection of martyrs’ statues. Out of high reference to the martyrs, those statues are beautifully chiseled as if trying to best reflect the face of the dead martyrs. If you want to know what the heroes looked like at that time, there you go:
(1898 – 1927) Coming from Changzhou Jiangsu province, Zhang Tai Lei organized and directed Guangzhou uprising as a commander of all. He died in a mortal combat during the uprising.
(1896 – 1946) Originally came from Huiyang in Guangdong province, Ye Ting participated in Nanchang uprising in 1927, and in the same year played role in leading the Guangzhou uprising, functioning as military commander in chief. 
(1897 – 1986) Coming from Meixian, Guangdong, Ye Jian Ying was the deputy commander in chief of the worker-peasant red army when the Guangzhou uprising broke out.
(1901 – 1974) Chen Yu was a native of Baoan, Guangdong. He took part in the 1927 Guangzhou uprising in the position of People’s Judiciary Committee Member in the Guangzhou Soviet government.
(1905 – 1928) Zhou Wen Yong was a native of Kaiping Guangdong province. He served as the overall commander of the Workers’ Red Guards during the Guangzhou uprising and became the Member of the People’s labor committee when the Guangzhou Soviet government was established. 
(1895 – 1931) A native of Changzhou, Jiangsu province, Yun Dai Ying played a role in organizing and initiating the Nanchang uprising and after the outbreak of the Guangzhou uprising, he became secretary general of the Guangzhou-Soviet government.
(1892 – 1929) A native of Zhongshan, Guangdong province, Yang Yin participated in the Guangzhou uprising functioning as the anti-subversive committee member in the Guangzhou-Soviet government, and became an acting chairman after the death of Zhang Tai Lei. 
(1896 – 1929) A native of Haifeng, Guangdong province, Peng Pai took up the post of people’s land affairs committee member after the founding of Guangzhou-Soviet government 
(1885 – 1929) A native of Zhuhai, Guangdong province, Su Zhao Zheng was elected chairman of the Guangzhou-Soviet government during the 1927 Guangzhou uprising.
If you choose to walk straight along the memorial avenue, you will be directly led to the center point of the park where the Insurrection Monument is located. The monument is a symbolic architecture, which has the form of a hand upholding a rifle that bursts through three blocks of stones with its tip pointing to the bright sky. It represents the undying spirit of the Chinese to fight for liberation and freedom. On front of the monument is engraved ten big golden Chinese characters stating "Eternal glory to the martyrs of the Guangzhou Uprising".
Guangzhou Insurrection Monument
Guangzhou Martyr’s Park is an impressive way to commemorate the hard struggles of Chinese ancestors to fight for their national liberation. This architecture is a resemblance that Chinese people, no matter where they are, have to appreciate their predecessors’ struggles. No wonder the Chinese are very proud of their national identity. This is something valuable we have to learn from such a big nation like China.
Sources:
Personal experience and additional information from other online articles
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