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.

(Shanghai Daily July 21, 2006)