The city of Yan'an was built along Fenghuang Shan, which runs on the southwest of the city. Fenghuang Village at the foot of the hill was the site where the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was first stationed after they arrived in Yan'an. The village including 15 cave-dwellings and 50 rooms were rented from the local farmers then. During that period, high-ranking party officials such as Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou En-lai lived in the village, and the Consultative Department of the Chinese Red Army was also stationed there.

During the period when the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was stationed there, a series of conferences were held and many important resolutions were made. For example, Zhang Guotao's mistakes of splitting the Red Army to establish a new central committee were exposed and corrected. The problems of how to stick to rules of independence and self -reliance as well as how to maintain a harmonious relation between the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party were also solved. Apart from this , a lot of schools for training party officials were set up, which greatly enhanced the quality of the staff and made a sufficient preparation for the Anti-Japanese War in such aspects as political thought and manpower organization.

In the Fenghuang Village, the late Chairman Mao wrote many articles, 16 of which were put into Anthology of Mao Zedong. On Practice and On Contradictions were two famous philosophical articles that laid a solid foundation for Mao Zedong Thought. On Protracted War was a famous military essay.

Chairman Mao met with the Canadian doctor Norman Bethune, a famous international communist. After Bethune died at his post, Chairman Mao wrote the famous article In Memory of Bethune in which Chairman Mao called on all the party members to learn from Bethune and try to " always think of others rather than of yourself." An American woman journalist Ms. Smedley interviewed Zhu De, the Commander in Chief of Eighth Route Army, and composed her book A Great Way on the basis of Zhu's life story.

On November 20, 1938, Yan'an City was bombed by over ten Japanese fighter planes. The work place of the Communist Party Central Committee was then moved to Yangjia Ling, Northwest of Yan'an City, on the very night.