October 22 - It Was 70 Years Ago Today

It was a victorious moment in the Revolution - and I'm not just talking about our entry in Jiangtai Pu this afternoon. On October 22, 1936, He Long's Red Second Front Army met comrades from Mao's First Front Army in Jiangtai, completing the union of the three main Red Armies and signalling the end of the Long March.

It's time for a good time. While the officials yawned their way through the propaganda exhibition, we discussed Long March spirit with the locals. They dig it.

"As a foreigner, why did you want to walk China's Long March?" The most irritating, yet most common question asked by Chinese journalists. No.2 is "What's your deepest impression?" Right now, the deepest impression is probably the one Khampa left in my leg when he bit me this morning. He's mad as hell and doesn't realise he just retired in glory.

The Reds had plenty more work to do once the Long March was over, but for us it's just going to be a Big Rest.

The People's Liberation Army was studying Long March spirit when we reached Hongyuan County, but they wouldn't let us take a photo of the process. We wanted to stay in one small town's government building, but this had been occupied by the unit commanders who were all pissed out of their heads when we arrived. Rather than let us witness this top-secret drinkathon, they made a private drive us to the next town.

Ladies from the local pensioners' association. Or so they said - some of them looked suspicously young.

Not the finest dragon dancers in China, but the most enthusiastic.

Sadly, Yang Xiao was taking all the photos and forgot to get one of himself, so here he is looking revolutionary just before we reached the finishing post.

Andy should remember this place, which also featured in Long March 1 It's the Great Wall of China, believe it or not - the only surviving section in Tongwei County in Gansu. We passed through here 10 days ago and while Yang Xiao does his best to out-cool Lao Li, he can't quite manage it.

Not much time today, as I'm sure you can appreciate, so please keep an eye on the site and there'll be more from the final days plus plenty besides from the backlog of pictures and stories that has been building up during our internet-free days in Sichuan and Gansu. In the meantime, Cheers!