The building where the Chinese communists held their first national congress on July 23, 1921 was a Shikumen-style structure built in the fall of 1920 at No.76 Xingye Road (formerly 106 Rue Wantz) in Shanghai’s former French concession. After undergoing restoration, the structure reopened to the public in September 1952 alongside a brand new memorial. The site was designated as a national key heritage site by the State Council in March 1961.

On October 31, 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping and six other members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee paid a visit to the site. They reviewed the history of the Party’s founding and recited the oath of Party membership in the Oath Hall to demonstrate their strong political commitment as a new leadership team.

The exhibition hall, Epoch-making Beginnings, is located on the first basement floor of the new memorial and covers approximately 3,700 square meters. The exhibition space is divided into seven sections: prologue, struggle for national survival, public awakening and rising interest in Marxism, mushrooming of early party groups, the emergence and rise of the Communist Party of China, forging ahead for a glorious course, and epilogue. A variety of display methods are used to comprehensively and methodically demonstrate the birth of the CPC.