October 16 - Huining, the Beginning of the End

Just six days to go and we've reached Huining County Town, the first of the three points at which the Long Marchers united with their comrades in the northwest Soviet zone. The Long March 70th anniversary lasts several days because it finished at different times and different places according to which part of the Red Army you're talking about. For the bulk of Zhang Guotao's Fourth Front Army, the Long March ended here in Huining on around October 10, 1936.

This part of Gansu is possibly the most dismal and dangerous section of the Long March. It's hard to see how the peasants are ever going to enjoy the kind of economic development that has lifted living standards in many other areas. Although the soil is theoretically fertile, there is little water - and certainly not enough to develop any kind of industry. The water quality is also appalling, in many places undrinkable even when used to make tea.  

Lao Li with his magnificent steed, Ando. Why do I say this is the most dangerous part of the Long March? Three days ago, Yang Xiao rode Ando ahead to find lodgings near dark. He then led him down the wrong path into a mud trap that he couldn't see in the twilight. Ando sank in up to his neck, while Yang Xiao had to crawl over the mud to get out alive. I know, because I sank into exactly the same mud three years ago.

Without Andy to help drag me out, I had no way of escaping. I've never been in such fear of my life; Yang Xiao says he was the same. When he got up to the main road, he was shouting like a madman at passing tractors to stop and help. Naturally, they accelerated past the ranting looney. After Lao Li and I caught Yang Xiao up and heard what had happened, we found some peasants who carried tools and boards down into the gully and dug Ando out in the dark.

It took about an hour and a half before Ando emerged, exhausted and terrified but unscathed.

Lao Li inspects his not-so-magnificent steed the next morning.

Shower time for Ando.

Whatever forest there once was in this area went into the steel furnaces during the Great Leap Forward. The Long Marchers would have seen this stone in Pugen as they came off the mountain from Min County into Zhang County. It stipulates the fine for cutting trees in the 'sacred forest'.

This is as close to "eating bitterness" as New Long Marchers come - instant noodles for lunch, which is normally about the worst fate that can befall us.

The villages of Gansu are plastered with slogans like nowhere else, not even Guizhou. This is a popular one from General Secretary Hu Jintao on the topic of "planned birth". Premier Wen Jiabao is also frequently quoted. This is a change from the Jiang Zemin era - during Long March 1, Andy and I never saw direct quotes from the leaders of the day. Premier Wen is due here in Huining tomorrow for a Long March 70th anniversary event. The town has been tarted up for his visit. Yesterday we were 20 kilometers south of the town in a "xiang" which by rights should have a sealed road. The plan was made years ago and the money made available, but nothing happened. The road was a mess, covered in rocks. When the local leaders last year realised there might be higher powers passing through on their way to the Long March memorial in the mountains above, however, they had the road swept and at least made respectable. There are slogans galore in that area promising bonuses of 3,400 yuan for families that abide by planned birth rules. We asked the peasants if they could actually receive that money. "Of course not," they answered.

This slogan is part of an exhortation to become "civilised citizens", which immediately recalled Yang Xiao's altercation with the Chief of Detectives in Yao'an County. "You're not fit to be a citizen of the People's Republic of China," yelled the Chief. Khampa is unimpressed.

Zhang Chengjie, 57, whose father was a landlord, intellectual and underground Communist Party agent before the Revolution. Zhang snr went to Taiwan in 1949 and destroyed his Party membership card  to avoid detection by Guomindang agents. After he came back later that year to help build New China, he also served with the People's Liberation Army, which also gave him no documents to put on his record. He was shot in 1970 as a "rightist" by order of the security bureau of the county revolutionary committee - in other words by a gang of illiterate local hooligans who for the duration of the Cultural Revolution had power of life and death without reference to any higher authority. Zhang's elder sister was also beaten to death in the street. Zhang is delighted with the current state leadership, so much so that he has written articles in praise of recent changes and says he wants to phone Wen Jiabao - "the people's good premier" - to thank him personally.

Khampa during a rare moment of rest in Caotan Xiang. To reach Huining on time, we marched 17 days without a break. The day before we got here, Khampa ate too much of the unfamiliar local food and collapsed. We were scared stiff, but after a few minutes he got up, shook himself and asked for more. 

Any time Khampa maons about his lot as a Long March horse, we point to the local horses and ask him if he fancies their life - nothing decent to eat, hard labour all day, then off to the knackers at the end. Old horses are killed and their meat sold to Shaanxi Province for 16 yuan a pound - more expensive than beef.

Khampa used to be a good-tempered character, but he's fed up now. He bit Yang Xiao on the bum recently and here aims to take a piece of me, as well.