The Tunnel Warfare Museum in north China, commemorating the tunnel warfare during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression between 1937-1945, has attracted more than 8 million visitors from both home and overseas since it was set up and opened to the public in 1959.

The Tunnel Warfare took place in the vast areas of north China Plain, particular in the Hebei Province, which was filmed in the Ranzhuang Village of Qingyuan County of the province in 1963.

The filming of the Tunnel Warfare made the remaining tunnels in Ranzhuang increasingly popular in China, the museum source said.

As early as in 1959, the existing tunnels was rebuilt and turned into a museum which was open to visitors in the same year.

In 1961, the museum was listed by the State Council, or the central Chinese government, as among the country's first group of cultural relics under the State protection.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, 72 courageous battles were fought in these tunnels in Ranzhuang Village to strike hard at the Japanese intruders, and killed 2,100of them, according to the museum.

The existing tunnels in Ranzhuang, the largest scale in central Hebei, have kept intact the original look of tunnels over 60 years ago. The original tunnels as long as 3,000 meters have been kept in good shape.

General Yang Chengwu had inscribed for the exhibition halls of the Tunnel Warfare which displayed 431 articles as relics of the revolutionary years

The museum has received an average of more than 3,000 visitors daily, averaging one or two thousand per day and reaching up to over 3,000 at times, since the beginning of this year, or twice the figure for 2004, the museum source said.

Editor: Wing