Deep beneath the lush canopies of the Liziba Anti-Japanese War Relics Park, hidden within the historical Bank of Communications complex, lies the Liziba Underground Gold Vault (李子坝抗战遗址地下金库). This 3,644-square-meter underground fortress once safely stored millions in cash, gold bars, and national financial assets when Chongqing served as China's wartime capital.
After getting the admission tickets, a guide led us down to the underground vault via a long flight of steep stone steps. The vault is really deep down in the underground.
According to the guide, after the war ended, the heavy vault doors were locked, and the mountain slopes slowly reclaimed the area. For decades, locals walked right over millions of dollars of historical secrets. The vault was accidentally rediscovered in 2007 when a local resident's pet cat accidentally slipped down a bizarre, chimney-like concrete vent on the hillside. When the cat managed to crawl out alive from a completely separate opening lower down the mountain, its owner went searching and leading authorities straight to the forgotten, fully intact wartime money fortress.
The exhibit in the vault includes Wartime Banknotes, Gold and Bullion Replicas, Historical Documents and Wartime Financial Map.
The interior highlights the physical mechanics behind the chimney-like ventilation columns, showcasing how the engineers kept the humid mountain cavern bone-dry to protect paper assets from rotting.
The above ventilation shaft led to the below chimney that we saw earlier near the vault entrance on the surface.
In another section of the vault, we could reach their hands through small cut-out holes in the plexiglass wall to try and physically grab, catch, or scoop up as many pieces of mini gold nuggets/bars as possible. We could bring them (一桶金) home for a fee. HUAT AH!
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