Editor’s Note: Focusing on the “Five-good” goals—good political guidance, good position construction, good organization team, good system implementation, and good role exertion—Guangzhou’s veteran service system has made precise efforts to expand the service chain horizontally and improve service efficiency vertically, striving to create a “Guangzhou Model” for veteran service and support. The Guangzhou Veterans Service Center has launched the column “Five-good” Initiative Leading the Way, Red Cotton Shining with Military Glory to systematically showcase the innovative practices and fruitful achievements of veteran service and support work across the city, aiming to promote the power of role models, encourage responsible actions, and polish the service brand.
In Yongqingfang, Liwan District, Guangzhou—a cluster of old streets and alleys steeped in Cantonese cultural heritage—the internet-famous landmark Zhongshuge, known as the “most beautiful bookstore”, has quietly transformed into a “Home for Veterans”—the Red Cotton Veterans Station in Zhongshuge. Since its unveiling and opening in July 2025, it has not only preserved its cultural gene of scholarly elegance but also built a spiritual harbor for veterans through targeted services, vividly demonstrating the innovative vitality of Guangzhou’s expanded veteran service stations.
Cultural Landmark Transformed into a Service Position
Pushing open the wooden door and entering the front hall, the two-story space of Zhongshuge (Yongqingfang Branch) features not only cultural symbols embodying the city’s heritage and exotic-style exhibition arrangements but also an exclusive service position for veterans integrating policy promotion, dispute resolution, and exchange forums. It provides a series of exclusive benefits for servicemen, military dependents, and veterans, including book purchase discounts, a dedicated reading area, and free tea and water.
Taking full advantage of its cultural space, the Red Cotton Veterans Station in Zhongshuge offers tangible preferential treatments and courtesies to veterans. Preliminary statistics show that the station has provided book purchase discounts to approximately 352 visitors, and offered a comfortable dedicated rest area and free tea and water to over 765 veterans and their dependents, making it a popular “heartwarming rest stop”.
“The station is fully equipped with service facilities, offers thoughtful convenience services, and hosts a wide range of activities. We truly feel the care from the veteran affairs department,” said a veteran from Duobao Sub-district, Liwan District, voicing the heartfelt feelings of many former servicemen.
Targeted Services Building a Spiritual Home
“This place is not just for reading; it is a spiritual harbor for veterans. We can exchange entrepreneurship experiences, share life insights, contribute ideas to community development, and play our residual roles. It is a coordinate for us to exert positive energy,” sighed Uncle Tang, a veteran from Changhua Sub-district.
The Red Cotton Veterans Station in Zhongshuge regularly holds promotion activities on veteran preferential policies, employment and entrepreneurship support, inviting backbone staff of sub-district service stations to interpret policy highlights and answer questions on-site. A special discussion zone has been set up, led by backbone members of the “Red Cotton Veterans”, to build a communication bridge. Using the “veterans’ language”, it promptly resolves various demands and disputes of veterans, shares experiences, and provides comprehensive and refined services for veterans in the district. This service system integrating policy supply and emotional connection allows veterans to truly find a sense of belonging.
“Upgrading Zhongshuge into a warm harbor serving fellow veterans is not only a care and tribute to servicemen, military dependents, and veterans but also a wonderful encounter between scholarly culture and military spirit. I firmly believe that honoring servicemen, military dependents, and veterans is not an ‘extra burden’ but a social responsibility that an enterprise should assume,” said Zhang Wen, the person in charge of the station.
It is worth mentioning that the Red Cotton Veterans Station also attaches great importance to giving play to the role of veterans, and actively collaborates with sub-district veteran service stations to organize Red Cotton Veterans to participate in grassroots governance. In the “Red Cotton Station” Veterans-led Smiling Guangzhou Initiative, a total of 512 person-times have been organized to participate in order maintenance at the Yongqingfang Scenic Area, efficiently handling more than 600 tourist inquiries and requests for help, and carrying out over 100 river patrol activities. These efforts have effectively improved the service quality of the scenic area and tourist satisfaction, fully demonstrating the social responsibility of veterans.
The Red Cotton Veterans Station in Zhongshuge Supports the Volunteer Service Work of the 15th National Games
Multi-party Collaboration Exploring a New Path for Service and Support
Different from traditional service stations, the Red Cotton Veterans Station in Zhongshuge adopts a co-construction model of “government guidance + enterprise operation + veteran participation”, extending the veteran service and support position from government agencies to prosperous business districts. By linking high-quality cultural enterprise resources, veterans can conveniently enjoy thoughtful services such as policy consultation and book purchase discounts while visiting the bookstore and tasting coffee. The tangible benefits and services have significantly improved the convenience and coverage of services.
“The establishment and efficient operation of the Red Cotton Veterans Station in Zhongshuge is a vivid practice of Guangzhou’s efforts to advance the veteran service and support system toward socialization, contextualization, and precision,” said the person in charge of the Liwan District Veterans Service Center. He added that in the next step, they will continue to deepen professional guidance, establish a closer collaboration mechanism with the Red Cotton Veterans Station in Zhongshuge, earnestly tell the heartwarming stories in the station, systematically summarize the service model and work experience, and strive to build it into a bright calling card demonstrating the effectiveness of Guangzhou’s veteran service system construction, so that the strong atmosphere of respect and care can warm people’s hearts.
