Cradle of Communist Manifesto in Belgian Street Cafe

White Swan Cafe (Xinhua News Agency)

One winter morning, when the morning sun rose and the sky was clear, I came to Brussels, the capital of Belgium, and the guide took us to the Palace Square. Napoleon once called the palace square "the most beautiful building in Europe". The ground of the square is paved with granite blocks, and the surrounding buildings are both classical and luxurious. The square is actually not big, smaller than a football field, surrounded by Gothic buildings with granite walls of the 15th and 16th centuries, looking simple and thick, opposite the former home of the French writer Victor Hugo. Then the guide led us to a house and said, "this is the cafe where Marx and Engels drafted the Communist Manifesto." I was shocked: I never thought that today I could stand in front of the birthplace of this great proclamation.

This is a five-story building, above the gate is a sculpture of a white swan about to fly. The guide said that the house, called the White Swan Cafe, is famous in Brussels and around the world for the reason that in February 1845, a young man named Karl Marx came to Belgium from Germany. In the cafe in Brussels, together with Engels, he drafted the Communist Manifesto.

Now, this ordinary cafe has produced a "celebrity effect", with many visitors coming from all over the world, the most of whom are Chinese. Locals don't understand why a mediocre cafe attracts so many Chinese tourists. Lopez, manager of the White Swan Cafe, told us: "this is because China is a successful country led by the Communist Party, and Marx and Engels are their mentors." Lopez said as he led us to the table with the bronze medal of Karl Marx's name, and we scrambled to take pictures in front of the nameplate.

In a hurry, it was inconvenient to stay, so I stood on the steps of the cafe and took some pictures. I am very excited to come here, because this cafe has echoed the voices of Marx and Engels and left their footprints.

Because this coffee shop is located near the statue of Julian, the most famous little hero in Belgium, if you come to Belgium, don't worry about not finding this White Swan Cafe.

Written by Luo Chu