Zhao Youwen, director of the Pingxingguan Victory Memorial Hall, notes that since the site opened to the public for free in 2008, annual visitor numbers have steadily increased. Last year, the memorial welcomed 470,000 visitors, and the number is expected to be even higher this year.

"We've cohosted exhibitions, like For Justice and Peace: International Friends in the Wuhan Resistance, with the Memorial Hall of the Former Site of the Wuhan Office of the Eighth Route Army. We're planning an academic symposium this September to mark the 80th anniversary of victory of the war," Zhao says.

Bai Lu, director of the culture and tourism bureau of Lingqiu county, emphasized that in this anniversary year, conservation efforts are in full swing as the Pingxingguan site is a national key cultural relics protection unit. Emergency reinforcement of Qiaogou is underway, along with security and infrastructure upgrades at the Pingxingguan site.

"A large-scale historical reenactment of the Pingxingguan Victory is also in preparation," Bai adds. "Preserving these red heritage sites is key to honoring revolutionary history, and to revitalizing the local economy."

In Baiyatai, amid the mountains where smoke once rolled through the gorge, the echoes of history remain — carried not just in stone and satchel, but in the stories passed from one generation to the next.