One-Day Governor and Hangzhou Restoration

Tong Baoxuan (1886-1919) played a special role in Hangzhou restoration in the 1911 Revolution

After the Wuchang Uprising in October 1911， revolutionaries in Hangzhou got busy planning and preparing an armed uprising They met secretly at White Cloud Temple on the West Lake many times The 25-year-old Tong was the figure the revolutionaries looked up to for leadership They agreed that Tong was the right person to lead the uprising

Tong Baoxuan was born in Qiantong， Ninghai County in eastern Zhejiang Prov-ince He signed up for a short course at Baoding Army Academy in 1907 On his way northward to the academy， he stopped in Shanghai and joined the Restoration Association with recommendation of Lu Gongwang He graduated from the course at the end of the year In 1908， he entered Tianjin Police Academy for further studies

The revolutionaries in Hangzhou made the planned move one day after the success of an armed uprising in Shang-hai on November 3， though it was ahead of the schedule Tong was chief commander of the Hangzhou Uprising On the evening of November 4， soldiers in Hangzhou， secret organizations and commandos from Shanghai joined forces and set out from Jianqiao and Nanxingqiao， two strategic battalions outside the walled city， to capture the provincial capital They were assisted by the solders and police inside the city They moved in three directions and soon stormed into the provincial government and arrested the governor In the small hours of November 5， Hangzhou was in the hands of revolutionaries Tong Baoxuan made a public announcement to the residents of the city in the capacity of provisional Zhejiang governor He sent soldiers who were Hain-ing natives back to Haining and helped set up the county government In less than a month， the whole province successfully broke away from the Qing Dynasty and was in the hands of revolutionaries

One day after the suc-cess of the uprising in Hangzhou， he stepped down from the provisional governorship and joined the Zhejiang commandos in the capacity of chief of staff to capture Nanjing， a city of strategic and histori-cal importance in the south of Yangtze River Delta After the successful siege of Nanjing， Tong came back to Hangzhou He took a number of military and civilian posts

Tong Baoxuan is re-membered for more than what he did in the 1911 Revolution He was strongly against Yuan Shikai who tried to restore imperial system and declared himself emperor of China in 1916 In conjunction with some people， he successfully forced two Zhejiang governors to resign because they supported Yuan He lost his influence after a warlord controlled the province After Ningbo announced in-dependence against Yuan， the warlord sent Tong out to conquer Ningbo Tong tried to work with the army from Ningbo and organize an uprising The scheme failed He was not trusted any more He was sent to Fujian in the capacity of deputy com-mander of Zhejiang Army

He was unhappy and became ill He died in Xiamen at the age of 33 in 1919

Qiantong， his hometown in Linghai， is now a tourist destination designated by the provincial government and a historical and cultural town under the provincial protec-tion The town came into being in the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) Many residents there are surnamed Tong It now has a population about 10，000 in about 2，000 households Tourists come to see a well-preserved rural life □