Ruijin (China)

Ruijin (Chinese: 瑞金; pinyin: Ruìjīn) is a county-level city of Ganzhou in the mountains bordering Fujian Province in the south-eastern part of Jiangxi Province. Formerly a county, Ruijin became a county-level city on May 18, 1994. It was an early center of Chinese communist activity and developed a reputation as cradle of the Chinese Communist Revolution. In the late-1920s, the Nationalists forced the Communists out of the Jinggang Mountains, sending them fleeing to Ruijin and the safety of its relative isolation in the rugged mountains along Jiangxi-Fujian border. In 1931, Mao Zedong founded the Chinese Soviet Republic (CSR) with Ruijin as its capital; it was called Ruijing by the CSR. The Communists withdrew in 1934 on the Long March after being surrounded again by the Nationalists. During the Cultural Revolution, the Ruijin Massacre in September and October 1968 killed over 300 people in the county. Ruijin is a popular destination for red tourism and ecotourism. It is a pilgrimage for Maoists from China and around the globe.