Museum of the June 5th Tunnel Tragedy

This museum preserves the site of one of the deadliest single incidents of the Japanese bombing campaign against wartime Chongqing. On the night of June 5, 1941, sustained air raids sent thousands of residents into a public air-raid tunnel at Jiaochangkou built to hold far fewer people. As the raid continued for hours, overcrowding and poor ventilation inside the shelter led to mass suffocation; estimates of the death toll vary, with some sources citing over a thousand and others considerably higher.

The exhibition hall now occupying the tunnel entrance presents the events of that night through photographs, documents, and restored sections of the shelter itself, alongside broader context on the six years of bombing Chongqing endured as China’s wartime capital. It’s a sober, factual museum rather than a typical sightseeing stop, and worth visiting with that in mind — it offers an important, ground-level counterpart to the city’s more triumphant wartime monuments elsewhere.

Every year on June 5th, the city marks the anniversary with a citywide air raid siren test, sounded between 10:30 and 10:42am — a practice that has continued annually since 1998. The sirens run through the full historical sequence (advance warning, air raid, all clear, and disaster signals), and locals, including survivors and relatives of victims, gather at the site to observe a moment of silence and pay their respects. It’s a solemn, city-wide moment rather than a tourist event, but visitors in Chongqing around that date will likely hear it regardless of where they are in the city.

Entry is generally free or low-cost, and the site is compact, making it easy to combine with other nearby Jiefangbei-area stops.