Long March 25 Begins!!

I've finally finished this report, so if you've visited before and found nothing, please scroll down again. Sorry for the delay!

Lao Li took his first steps on November 27, seen off by Ed, Jiacuo and the children of Hejiachong Primary School, which stands right next to the old headquarters of the Red 25th Army. Since he's now the only New Long Marcher on the road, and since no one - and I do mean no one - has ever tried what he's doing now, I think I'd better introduce Lao Li some more...

Lao Li's full title is Li Wanbin. He is a Chinese Korean from Yanji in Jilin Province, a 6th Dan Taekwando master and international TKD referee. I shan't tell you how old he is, but there's a reason he always wears that hat! Lao Li was dossing about at work one day in 2003 when he read an internet report about these two foreigners retracing the Long March. "It's possible to walk the Long March?" he wondered. "And two foreigners! That's the kind of thing I should be doing!" Lao Li spent the next year devouring all the information he could about Long March history, while persuading his 17-year-old son, Li Hui, to accompany him.

Father and son set off in October 2004 and finished Long March 1, i.e. the Long March of Mao's 1st Front Army, on October 19, 2005. That summer, however, Lao Li had read another internet report that Ed and Yang Xiao were planning Long March 2. "Great," he thought, "I'll do that, too." He had already been considering it, but knowing there would be comrades on the road, as well, confirmed his decision. Li Hui retired from Long Marching to join the army, but Lao Li set off from Liujiaping on November 19, 2005, the same day as Yang Xiao and Ed - though they still knew nothing about him. Lao Li avoided the press that day and started walking late-morning, so YX and Ed didn't meet him until leaving Xupu County Town about two weeks later, when a curious chap in black leather strode up and shook hands enthusiastically, claiming he was walking the Long March, too. They didn't believe him, but as the weeks passed and paths kept crossing, and Lao Li told them more about his experiences on Long March 1, they realised he was the real deal.

Lao Li is a very distinctive character. Though a man of considerable knowledge, he is also fixed in his opinions. He's a fervent admirer of Chairman Mao and, though not a Party member - yet - he is the most passionate advocate of the CCP I have ever met. Yang Xiao likens him to a Chinese Don Quixote. We marched with him many times during Long March 2 and became close friends, so when he announced he was going to do Long March 25, I volunteered to see him off.

The children of Hejiachong Primary School got out of class to wish Lao Li well as he took his first steps on the trail of the Long March of the Red 25th Army, the smallest and least-known of the Long March armies. This Long March is a family matter for Lao Li. As fate would have it, when his son joined the PLA he was assigned to the 39th Army, which was formerly, yes, the 25th. Li Hui's commander put the hard word on Lao Li, wondering why, since he had already completed two Long Marches, why didn't he do their Long March, as well? Being a responsible father and a man with an over-developed sense of face, Lao Li gave his word there and then.

This 800+-year-old gingko tree is where the 25th began its journey on November 16, 1934. The 25th was an offshoot of the Red 4th Front Army, left behind when the 4th abandoned its Hubei-Henan-Anhui base in 1932. It was perhaps the youngest unit of the Red Army, being formed from orphans and younger siblings of soldiers in the regular 4th. Its brief was the protect and preserve the base area, but with less than 3,000 soldiers it could do no more than survive. In summer 1934, the central Communist leadership in Jiangxi decided the 25th should move - though without saying where - and become part of the "anti-Japanese vanguard". A man named Cheng Zihua was sent to convey this decision to the Hubei-Henan border area where the 25th was then based. It tok him three months to reach his destination, whereupon he was made commander of the 25th in place of Xu Haidong （later one of the People's Republic's most highly regarded military leaders）, who dropped to deputy commander for the duration of the Long March. The 25th was then redesignated as the "March North to Fight Japan Second Vanguard Unit". On November 16, they left Hejiachong in southeast Henan to march west - the direction decided for them by dint of being the only one relatively free of enemies.

This ancestral hall was headquarters of the 25th Army in Hejiachong. The primary school is next door to its left. After the 25th left, many of the men of Hejiachong went with the tiny 28th Red Army, which was spun off from the 25th as a guerrilla force that would remain behind in the former Hubei-Henan-Anhui base area. The local government militia then moved into Hejiachong and burned down many of the houses, killing several of the villagers, as well.

Lao Li and Jiacuo bring leather fashion to Henan. Henan is the most populous province in China, with close to 100 million people. The towns are huge compared to what we've seen on other parts of the Long March trail; even village populations number into the 1,000s. And while locals complain as usual about their poverty, they seem far more prosperous than most we've met on the New Long March.

On Day 2 of Long March 25, Lao Li reached Lingshan, where the ancient temple has been redeveloped as a tourist attraction.

The village next door has been demolished and completely rebuilt, while most of the farming land has been taken over for development. Peasants only got 120 yuan per square meter compensation for their homes, but 15,000 yuan per mu of land - giving them just enough to pay for their obligatory new houses, all built to specifications in line with the tourist development.

I asked one of the shop owners whether anyone objected. He said, "The local government has ways to put pressure on us... but I shouldn't talk to you about that." He said the development had no class and it would have been better to let the peasants themselves look after the site. I wondered about local government finances, as the central government has banned them from raising taxes the way they used to （so the peasants look very favourably on Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao）. There are two tax bases - one is controlled by the central government, covering areas like banking, insurance, mining; while the other is available to local government and covers local business, shops and...tourism. So they can get central investment for rebuilding historic sites like Lingshan, but the tax income accrues to the local government. "So is that the point of all this?" I asked. "Yes."

Before reaching the departure point in Hejiachong, we stopped off at a "model village" in northen Henan called Liuzhuang. I've never seen one of these places before. The villas above are provided by the village committee to every family - more than 400 of them - in Liuzhuang. Each one is more than 400 square meters, so with planned birth keeping families small, each house has two empty floors.

It's all down to this chap, Shi Laihe, who was Party Secretary in Liuzhuang for more than 40 years until his death in 2002. He was a man of tremendous energy who built good relationships all the way to the very top of the state. He was a representative to the National People's Congress in 2002 and, in the picture of all reps with then-President Jiang Zemin, Shi Laihe stands right behind Jiang.

But although the current propaganda makes Shi Laihe a standard-bearer for Jiang's "Three Represents", it's Deng Xiaoping Theory that got Liuzhuang where it is today - hence this stone opposite the village committee building bearing the exhortation, "Seek truth through facts". It's actually Mao's phrase, but Deng took it over to validate his own pragmatic politics.

Liuzhuang's wealth was built up gradually until Shi Laihe exploited the rapid reform and development of the 1990s to take his village where few have ever gone. He created a pharmaceutical enterprise and paper-pulp factory that have been so successful villagers now send sons and daughters to university and plan car purchases. Average income is over 10,000 yuan a year and average savings in excess of 200,000 yuan.

I have never even seen a county town with a 3-star hotel. Liuzhuang needs one to welcome all the visiting dignitaries and leaders keen to learn how they did it. 

Anyway, none of that has anything to do with the Long March, but you can bet Shi Laihe had plenty to say about Long March Spirit while he was alive - and I thought you might be interested to see what the future of rural China is supposed to look like. There'll be more from Long March 25 as Lao Li sends in reports, so keep an eye on the site!