Young footsteps echo the Long March

Walking into history

As the journey continued, history gradually moved beyond textbooks and became something the students could see, touch and feel.

That sense of connection deepened as He encountered the ordinary objects that had accompanied the soldiers on their journey.

One object seen repeatedly in museums and at historical sites offered her a glimpse into the hardships of the march: straw sandals.

Made from rice straw, the footwear accompanied countless soldiers along the route.

In Yudu, He met an 80-year-old veteran from Guangdong province, who told her that making a pair of straw sandals took two days, yet they could wear out in as little as 15 days.

"Comparing them with today's leather combat boots gave me a much clearer understanding of the shortage of supplies and the hardships the soldiers endured," He said.

While such objects helped He imagine the soldiers' daily struggles, walking part of the route gave Zheng Ting a more immediate sense of the dangers they had faced.

At a battle memorial in Guangchang, the 24-year-old stood in silence and felt what she described as "history coming toward me".

She compared learning about the Long March from a textbook to viewing a river from above: readers may know where it begins and ends, but they cannot experience every bend along the way.

By walking the route, feeling the mud beneath her feet and enduring the July heat of southern Jiangxi, Zheng gained a deeper understanding of the uncertainty faced by the young soldiers.

"They did not know how much farther they had to go or whether they would live to see New China," she said. "What sustained them was the belief that they could not accept oppression or lose their homeland."