The Empress Dowager came here to enjoy the rain and the moon and fete foreign envoys. To protect the 3,OOO-year-old Beijing from war devastation, the Chinese Communist Party held negotiation herewith Fu Zuoyi, a Kuomintang general. A peaceful agreement was reached in January 1949 and Beijing was liberated peacefully.
After liberation, Fu Zuoyi was subsequently a Vice-Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Vice-Chairman of the National Defence Council and Minister of Water Conservancy and Power. He died of illness in 1974.
