Nearly 50 youths will retrace part of the route of the Red
Army's famous Long March this summer to mark the 70th anniversary
of the historic event.
Organizers with the Chinese Youth League said the march
participants, mostly university students and their teachers, will
be divided into seven groups who will set out to different stops
along the route. More than 100,000 Red Army soldiers began a
9,600-kilometer trek in October 1934 in order to evade the
Kuomintang army.
The Red Army managed to transfer forces from areas along the
Yangtze River to a base in Shaanxi Province after finishing the
march 12 months later. The youths will visit towns and places along
the route, including Ruijin of Jiangxi Province, Zunyi of Guizhou
Province and even Jiajin Snow Mountain in Sichuan Province - the
first snow mountain taken by the Red Army.
"The significance is that young people should learn from the
Long March spirit of enduring hardship to conquer difficulties,"
said Li Yangyang, an official with the Shanghai Committee of the
Chinese Youth League.
Liu Dong, a student with Shanghai Normal University taking part
in the event, said that his father used to cover the Long March
route.?
(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2006)