Xibaipo is located in Pingshan County，Hebei Province.
It was once the location of the CPC Centralcommittee and the headquarters of the PLA and isnow one of the most famous destinations in the countryon the Red Tourism.
Xibaipo is a small mountain village on the north bankof the Hutuo River in the mountains in western Hebei.
The scenery is beautiful and the soil is fertile here.Thevillage is located in the center of Pingshan County nestledbetween the North China Plains and Taihang Mountain.
Xibaipo was selected to be the command center for theliberation of the entire country and planning for the establishmentof New China.It enjoys unique geographicalconditions and natural environment plus a revolutionarybase and political strength built up over many years.It is surrounded by mountains on three sides and by water onthe fourth.To the west is Taihang Mountain，to the east isthe Central Hebei Plains and only 90 kilometers away isthe important city of Shijiazhuang.It is an easy place toget to，easy to defend and hard to attack，a good mountainretreat in times of crisis and a good base from whichto attack the city when the time was right.The fairly welldeveloped rural economy of the area ensured adequateeconomic support for both the army and the people andprovided the material base for locating the Central committeethere.
The Central committee was only located in Xibaipofor 10 months，but this period was a brilliant chapterin the annals of the Chinese revolution.For this reason，along with Jinggang Mountain，Ruijin and Yan’an，it isconsidered one the birthplaces of the revolution.The timethe Central committee was located in the village markeda turn in the great history of the Chinese revolution as well as the most successful time in the course of the communistdemocratic revolution.The new-democratic revolutionled by the Central committee gained nationwidevictory during this time，opening the way for the Party toswitch the focus of their efforts from the countryside tothe cities and from warfare to development，and to beginthe change from new democracy to socialism.
Ground was broken for the Xibaipo Memorial Museumin 1976 to cover a total area of 13，400 square meterswith a floor space of 3，344 square meters.The museumis built is the form of a two-story step-style courtyarddwelling and a corridor runs around all four sides of thecourtyard.The museum’s exhibits are combined with thelatest audio-visual equipment to show Xibaipo’s positionin history and far-reaching influence in a concise way.
The museum is divided into four educational areas orsightseeing sites，Former Site of the Central committee，Exhibit of Relics，Park of Calligraphy and Carvings，and Traditional Education Project.The Former Site of the Centralcommittee contains the residences of Mao Zedong，Liu Shaoqi，Zhou Enlai and Ren Bishi and the site of theheadquarters of the PLA.Between the front and backcourtyards is the site of the Second Plenary Session of theSeventh Central committee.In the westernmost part ofthe courtyard is the site of the September 1948 meeting ofthe Central committee.
As everyone knows，“old revolutionary base area”is almost synonymous with“lagged-behind area，”andXibaipo also went through such a period in its history.Inrecent years，however，the people of Xibaipo have beenmaking increasingly steady and sound progress in restructuringlocal agriculture and improving their lives，re-lying on the area’s excellent geographical conditions andunique political strength and strong efforts to developpastoral tourism and red tourism.All 67 households inthe village have built new houses and greatly improvedtheir living conditions.There are now 64 bed and breakfastinns and tourist hotels operating in the village involving95%of the village residents.There are 23 bed andbreakfast inns that can handle a total of 400 guests and 15home-cooked country cuisine restaurants that can handle500 diners at a time.Everyone in the village，with theexception of a few senior citizens and children in school，is involved in the tourist and service trades.Includingpeople from outside the area，there are over 200 peopleinvolved in providing in-home tourist services with anaverage yearly income of 4，711 yuan.“Every householdhas a project，everybody has a job”is a vivid descriptionof Xibaipo today.The residents of Xibaipo collectively setup a pollution-free vegetable production plot covering18 mu in order to accelerate the development of pastoraltourism.This plot produces a total income of 180，000yuan and more per year.The total income from tourismand services in all of Xibaipo in 2005 topped 1.3 millionyuan.
Today’s Xibaipo，with its crisscrossing streams，rowsof poplar trees and beautiful environment attracts hordesof visitors to the village.
