Bailie Square

Bailie Square

Peili square, located in Anning District, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, was built to commemorate the great contribution of Rewi Alley (1897-1987), an old friend of the Chinese people, a famous New Zealand writer and poet, a great internationalist fighter and the founder of Peili Petroleum School, to China's vocational education.

brief introduction

Peili square is located in Anning District, a famous area of science, education and culture in Lanzhou. It is a collection of several universities and technical secondary schools, such as Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Gansu University of political science and law, Gansu provincial Party school, Gansu Agricultural University, economic management cadre college, Lanzhou City College, etc The eastern and southern sides are surrounded by Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou City College and economic management cadre college.

Old square

Peili square covers a small area of about two or three mu. However, the planning and design of Peili square is very natural and harmonious. First of all, it does not deliberately transform the terrain and forcibly integrate it into an endless "square". Instead, it is built according to the surrounding terrain. The floor is paved with irregular bluestone slabs. The boundary between the square and the street is built into a flower bed with bluestone low walls and various plants Flowers and trees, in summer and autumn, Peili square looks like a big flower bed from the street.

In fact, the cultural value of Peili square has long exceeded the garden and horticultural value of the square. Peili square was built for new Zealander Louis Ailey, who has made great contributions to China's vocational education. The cultural nature of the square is reflected here. In the northeast corner of the square stands a huge group sculpture, which is the statue of Louis Ailey and the children of Gansu Province. Louis Ailey is sitting kindly, surrounded by several lovely primary school students. On the north side of the square is a relief wall about 100 meters long and several meters high. The relief records and reflects Louis Ailey's creation and development in Shandan, Gansu Province in chronological order The touching deeds of developing Peili school.

Nearly 60% of the square area is occupied by lawns and various trees. The main tree species are peach, pine, cypress and weeping willow.

Transformation of the square

On December 22, 2008, the transformed Peili Plaza was put into use. At present, the investment invitation work of the underground shopping mall covering an area of 6600 square meters has started. The "new" Peili Plaza, which integrates leisure, entertainment, fitness, shopping and other functions, has begun to take shape

. According to the plan, the central area of the square is a circular fountain with a diameter of 18 meters. The statue of Louis airy is in the center of the fountain. The ground of the square is all made of granite, and the road teeth are made of black footstones, which makes the whole square solemn and fashionable. After the plastic surgery, Peili Plaza will have a new look, integrating leisure, entertainment, fitness, sightseeing, shopping and other functions. The newly built underground of Peili square is a civil air defense project, which is mainly used for commercial operation. The ground is divided into three parts: the viewing platform area, the central area of the square and the entrance area. The relief on the north side of the square is restored with granite, and the effect is more realistic. Peili square also built an underground shopping mall covering an area of 6600 square meters. At present, "new" Peili square covers an area of more than 9000 square meters of ground leisure square has been basically completed, fitness equipment and other facilities are in place, green landscape and fountains will be gradually added and improved. Covering an area of 6600 square meters, the underground mall has been officially opened on the national day of 2009, positioning it as a medium and low consumption level.

historical background

In September 1940, Louis Ailey visited Baoji, Shaanxi Province. In shuangshipu, a small town at the foot of Qinling Mountains, he selected the cradle where he later gave birth to Peili school. In June 1942, the main school building was completed on the Bank of Qingshui River. The staff dormitory is a cave at the foot of Berlin mountain. In memory of the late American scientist Joseph Bailie in Shanghai, according to the Chinese transliteration, all the schools he founded were named "Bailie school", which means to train people to meet the dawn

.

In August 1943, when Ellie and his friend Joseph Needham, a famous British scientist who went to Yumen oil mine to give lectures, passed by Shandan, Gansu Province, they inspected and selected Shandan as the new school site for relocation. In the early autumn of 1943, Ellie hired an "old wool cart" (an old-fashioned truck for hauling wool) in Lanzhou Highway Bureau, which contained four jars of pickles, cotton, matches, kerosene and other items. With nearly 60 students from shuangshipu, George Ewen Hoek made a long journey to Lanzhou by walking for more than 700 kilometers. Facing the cold of autumn, they began to march towards Hexi and reached Shandan. In the early spring of 1944, the first classroom of Shandan Peili technical school was completed. In a classy classroom with humid soil, a northeastern teacher began to teach students the first lesson: Darwin's "origin of species". In this year, Hok created the school song, and developed a set of secondary professional syllabus to integrate the school motto of "creative analysis, hand and brain" put forward by Eli into the teaching. During this period, Ai Li was the president and He Ke was the dean of academic affairs. He also added more than ten majors in chemistry, smelting, animal husbandry, surveying and mapping. The school is developing rapidly. On July 17, 1945, when he and his classmates were playing football together on the playground, he broke his right toe. Finally, the wound became infected and his condition deteriorated. On July 22, Hoek died at the age of 30. The loss of the right-hand man, ally alone in grief to carry on the burden of running the school. On August 15, 1945, China won the Anti Japanese war. In the carnival, the teachers and students of Shandan Peili school looked forward to the dawn of freedom. But after the end of the war, the KMT government no longer provided economic security. Ali ran around and a large number of international friends extended a helping hand. When the school was very difficult, Ali wrote to her mother in New Zealand, hoping to send her savings and pension to save the school and the poor children in China. The kind mother satisfied her son's wish. The staff of the Ali Memorial also said that Ali has a girlfriend in the United States, who raised money from the United States to help him tide over the difficulties under the condition of tight school running funds! Ai Li never married, but paid unimaginable love and painstaking efforts to the poor children and war orphans of Peili school! Before he died, he entrusted the four orphans he raised to Eli. Ai Li also raised two other orphans, Li Xue, who worked in the Ministry of petroleum after liberation, and Duan Shimou, who was the principal of Lanzhou Peili petroleum technical school (the name of Shandan Peili school was changed after it was relocated to Anning Shilidian in Lanzhou in 1953). Peili school developed in difficulties and reached its peak in 1948. There were more than 400 students. After graduation, they were distributed to all parts of the country according to their majors.

In 1942, Louis Ailey, George Hoek and others founded Peili school in shuangshipu, Shaanxi Province. The school moved to Shandan, Gansu Province at the end of 1943 and Shilidian, Anning District, Lanzhou City in 1953. In 2003, Peili Petroleum School merged with Lanzhou Teachers College. In 2006, Lanzhou Teachers College was upgraded to Lanzhou City College. After Louis Ailey came to China in 1927, he proposed the establishment of the China Industrial Cooperative Association. The military supplies produced by "Gonghe" supported the Anti Japanese War and solved the livelihood problems of countless refugees. He set up "Peili school" on a trial basis all over the country, exploring and forming the guiding ideology of "creative analysis, hand and brain". Mr. Louis Ailey has deep feelings for Peili school and Gansu Province. He called Gansu "the second hometown". In the 1980s, he donated many cultural relics he collected to Peili school and Shandan County. He won the title of honorary citizen of Gansu Province on his 88th birthday.

Address: Anning East Road, Anning District, Lanzhou (near Peili commercial building)

Longitude: 103.7450583411

Latitude: 36.099495832788

Ticket information: no ticket required.

Chinese PinYin : Pei Li Guang Chang