Exploring Tilanqiao, the "No. 1 Prison in the Far East": Death Row Prisoners Wear Mandarin Duck Clothes

Exploring? The No. 1 Prison in the Far East? Tilanqiao: Death Row Prisoners Wear Mandarin Duck Clothes

This century-old prison, which is still in use today, once held many famous prisoners. With a century of history and a century of vicissitudes, Tilanqiao, which was once located in a peripheral area, has now become the center of Shanghai. It is said that occupying valuable land in the downtown area was the main reason why Tilanqiao Prison was closed.

Built through bidding a hundred years ago

When building Tilanqiao Prison 110 years ago, the Shanghai Public Concession used the most conventional method of building houses today - bidding.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the Public *** Concession openly invited bids from various construction factories and construction contractors, and finally the British Engineering Office in Singapore won the bid. It was originally built in the style of an American prison, all made of blue bricks and polished Ningbo Stone construction. Later, it was expanded and renovated to form British-style hardwood floors, reinforced concrete floors and steel-reinforced cement door beams, making the prison well-preserved. Looking from the outer wall of the prison, there is no sign of dilapidation.

In order to ensure the internal facilities, the builders specialize in the industry, and the faucets, pipes, etc. are contracted separately, and each step is handled by more professional people. ?For example, the iron doors of the prison cells are made in Shanghai, and the door locks and keys are manufactured and supplied by Hartley Company in London, England. Until now, various British-made locks and keys are still in use. ?Xu Jiajun said.

?The door lock in Tilanqiao Prison is equivalent to a bound volume of a magazine. It is thickly fixed on the iron door. It has three lock bolts and the key is 15 centimeters long. ?Xu Jiajun told the Rule of Law Weekend reporter while drawing the shape of the key on the paper.

In the taxi, the talkative driver mysteriously told reporters that the prisoners inside had never escaped. After hearing this rumor, Xu Jiajun smiled and said: "Before liberation, there were very few people who escaped." ?This statement is also due to the unique design of prison cells.

Different from the structure of corridors between cells on both sides of most prisons, Tilanqiao Prison is in a zigzag shape, with cells arranged "back to back" and "shoulder to shoulder" in the middle, surrounded by corridors. Xu Jiajun drew the structure of the cell on the paper and used a pen to simulate the possible escape routes of the prisoners: "Look, digging tunnels and wall holes won't work. Unlike some prisons with doors on one side and windows on the other, the outside of these three walls Or a prison cell, where can I go? ?

In addition, the prison also built another row of barbed wire on the floor in the middle of the corridor, forming two corridors, the inner and the outer. When patrolling the outer corridor, guards can see the upper, lower, and lower floors at the same time. The movements of prisoners on the floor.

The daily management in the prison is also very strict. During the concession period, the upper management staff of Tilanqiao Prison were mainly British, and the guards were Indians, commonly known as "Red Headed Asan".

An old man who lives to the west of Tilanqiao Prison pointed to his house and said, this is where "Red Headed Asan" lived. The walls of the house are 20 to 30 centimeters thick. The old man who spoke pure Shanghainese was worried that reporters would not understand, so he made some gestures with his hands on his head, because these Indian patrol officers all had thick red cloth tied around their heads.

In 1930, because the Indian guards were dissatisfied with the candidates promoted by their superiors, they held a coup. The hard-line British management fired all the Indian guards in the prison and began to use Chinese as guards.

At that time, the warden's residence had a dining room, two bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, servants' quarters, etc., but the conditions in the prison area were very harsh. There are no stools in the prison area, and the guards must stand at all times to maintain a state of alert. There is also an instrument installed on the wall between the two outer corridors, commonly known as the "Change Watch". The guards must use a key to activate the "Change Watch" every time they inspect a circle. Look, the main duty room of the prison has equipment for automatic recording, which can assess whether the guards conduct inspections on time.

? It was very advanced at that time. ?Xu Jiajun couldn't help but emphasize, ?And elevators have been installed in two buildings. ?

Since August 1943, a Chinese has served as the warden of Tilanqiao Prison. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the working conditions of the guards were improved and stools were added. But in order to prevent the guards from being lazy, a three-legged stool was designed. This kind of stool has a small seat, is light in weight, and has an unstable center of gravity. It is easy to fall over after sitting for a long time. Therefore, the guards jokingly called this stool "rest stool".

? Big prison, small cell?

When it comes to Tilanqiao Prison, many people will say something like this, asking a prisoner serving a 10-year sentence to change cells every day. When I was released from prison, I still couldn't live there. This joke illustrates the scale of the prison.

Tilanqiao Prison is known as the "No. 1 Prison in the Far East" because it is larger than Mumbai Prison in India and Sugamo Prison in Japan.

Tilanqiao Prison once held more than 8,000 people at its peak. Xu Jiajun said that in the 1930s, Tilanqiao Prison was also the prison with the largest number of prisoners in the world at that time. One of the reasons why such a large number of prisoners can be held is that the cells here are small.

Most of the cells in Tilanqiao Prison are small rooms of 3.3 square meters to 3.6 square meters, and there are three people per room. In the past, prisoners slept on bunks on the floor. Now, each cell has a raised and low bed, as well as a movable bed, which can be pulled up to become a cabinet during the day and lowered to serve as a wooden bed at night. In response to local conditions, detention conditions have been greatly improved compared to the past.

In order to distinguish so many prisoners, the prisons during the concession period made the prison uniforms into different styles. The English word "Y" is printed on the chest, back, knees, etc. of the prison uniforms of sentenced prisoners. Different prison terms have different styles and colors. The condemned prisoners wear Yin Yang clothing with one side white and one side black. (also known as Yuanyang Yi), in order to make it easier to wear shackles, their prison trousers have grape buttons from the crotch to the trousers. Guards can immediately identify a prisoner's sentence upon seeing the prison uniform.

There is also an 8-square-meter cell in Tilanqiao, which is equipped with a fixed iron bed, iron table, iron stool and flush toilet. It was designed by the British to detain foreigners and was known as ?Western prison? Because it is cross-shaped, it is often called a cross tower.

Later it was transformed into the Shanghai Prison Exhibition Hall, which was officially opened on December 29, 1999. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, hundreds of Japanese war criminals were imprisoned here. After liberation, it was once converted into a women's prison, and Wang Jingwei's wife Chen Bijun also spent the last 10 years of her life here.

In addition, on the third floor of the Shanghai Prison Exhibition Hall, there is an 18-square-meter room with a 1.8-square-meter square hole in the middle of the floor and two movable floors on both sides of the square hole. When the handbrake is turned, the movable floor will separate to both sides with a bang, revealing a square hole; there is a similar device on the second floor. This square hole can lead directly to the morgue on the first floor, and the body can be hoisted directly into the morgue downstairs through it.

On the morning of April 22, 1946, the Japanese war criminals Masataka Kabutoki, Tsutomu Fujii, Shozo Masuji, Koichi Matsui and Gosaburo Shirai were hanged here.

The Prison’s Outdoor Execution Ground

To the north of Tilanqiao Prison, at No. 280 Kunming Road, the door frame reads "New Coast Auditorium" in four golden characters. This was once the same indoor execution ground. The corresponding outdoor execution ground.

When the reporter visited, there were a few chairs outside the door of the auditorium. The owner was nowhere to be seen at noon in the hot weather, and there were only these few chairs. The small door next to it says "Family Meeting". The several-meter-long iron railing outside the door is where the prisoners' families line up.

Every time it is visiting time, there will be a long line here, extending to the alley across the street. When the reporter interviewed a nearby resident, she stretched out her hand and gestured into the distance, as if she was speaking. There are hundreds of people waiting here.

Mr. Chen Hongwen, who has lived here for 70 years, lamented that now it is a place to see relatives, but it used to be a place to behead people.

Xiaohe also died here.

In the early days of liberation, many prisoners were imprisoned in the prison. Some of them were directly escorted here for execution after being sentenced to death by the Military Justice Division of the Shanghai Military Control Commission or the People's Court.

The outdoor execution ground was originally separated from Tilanqiao Prison by a wall. The execution ground surrounded by bamboo fences was often filled with nearby residents, including many children nearby at that time.

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The outdoor execution ground ceased use in the early 1950s. In 1956, the current auditorium and reception room were built around the original site.