Long March legacy injects vitality into revitalization in China's old revolutionary base

NANCHANG, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Ge Jiuchang, 48, has inherited the job of his grandfather, a tailor who joined the Red Army for the epic Long March 70 years ago.

In October 1934, the Central Red Army left for the Long March from Yudu County, Ganzhou City, east China's Jiangxi Province. Ge Jietiao, Ge Jiuchang's grandfather, carried a hand crank sewing machine as he followed the army, and mended clothes for the soldiers while they rested during the journey.

After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, Ge Jietiao, who then worked in the northeastern part of the country, would always tell his family that he wanted to go back to his hometown and open a tailor shop.

Ge Jiuchang heard these stories about his grandfather and dreamed of becoming a tailor. Today, he has been working in the garment industry for nearly three decades. And in his hometown of Yudu, one out of every three people is engaged in the textile and garment industry.

"It is the original intention of our ancestors who embarked on the revolutionary journey to keep the villagers warm, and I want everyone to wear their favorite clothes," said Ge Jiuchang.

With the revitalization and development of old revolutionary base areas in the southern part of Jiangxi, Ge Jiuchang can both find employment and take care of his family in his hometown, earning nearly 7,000 yuan (about 983.5 U.S. dollars) a month, no less than going out to work in south China's Guangdong Province in his early years.

"Our hometown today is even better than what the revolutionary forefathers hoped for," he said.

Currently, there are over 3,850 textile and garment enterprises in Yudu, and the county's output value of the textile and garment industry chain reached 85 billion yuan in 2023.

NEW LIFE

"The Yudu River we saw in front of us was the first big river that the Central Red Army had to cross during the Long March. At that time, the widest part of the river was more than 600 meters, and the water depth was one to three meters. The water was fast, but there was no bridge. If the soldiers wanted to cross the river, they had to set up a floating bridge," said Zhong Guilian, a museum guide.

But now, five big bridges have already been built over the Yudu River.

"Before our grandfathers set off, they looked forward to living and working in peace and contentment, which has been realized in our generation," said Hua Shuilin, a Red Army martyr descendant.

He has contracted eight vegetable greenhouses in front of his house, got rid of poverty, and now lives in a two-and-a-half-story new house.

The government not only helped the villagers build new houses, but also invested five or six million yuan to build greenhouses, irrigation canals and roads, said Hua Sheng, Party secretary of the county's Huangsha Village.

By 2011, there were still 2.15 million poor people in the old revolutionary areas of the southern part of Jiangxi, with a poverty ratio higher than the national average.

In 2012, the central government issued a guideline on supporting the revitalization and development of the southern part of Jiangxi after an investigation into the area's economic and social development. Over the years, more than 20 national level supporting documents and more than 200 paired-up assistance documents of central state organs focused on the area's development.

Also, Ganzhou City has put people's livelihood problems on the frontlines, spending nearly 70 percent of its fiscal expenditure and nearly 80 percent of its new financial resources to improve people's livelihood.

As a result, people's lives have undergone tremendous improvement. In 2023, the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents in Ganzhou was 2.8 and 3.6 times that of 2011, respectively.

NEW DEVELOPMENT

"We are preparing for the test flight. The Ruijin airport is expected to be officially opened to traffic this year," said Yan Ping, general manager of Ruijin airport construction company, adding that the airport will connect Ruijin, a center of the early revolutionary activities of the Communist Party of China, with major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

In recent years, thanks to revitalization policies, infrastructure construction has been accelerated in the old revolutionary base areas in Jiangxi, which has paved way for more development opportunities.

"More and more goods are transported by China-Europe freight trains, and the range of routes is getting wider. More enterprises rely on such logistics channels to go abroad," said Liu Liping, deputy head of Ganzhou International Inland Port's operation management bureau.

Since the port was established in 2015, a total of over 1,400 China-Europe and China-Asia freight trains have been operated via the port, accounting for more than 75 percent of the total number of such trains in the province.

Thanks to the port and the train service, Nankang furniture market has gathered more than 100 design companies and over 500 designers from all over the world, aiming to build the largest solid wood furniture manufacturing base in the country.

Industries including home furnishing, non-ferrous metals, electronic information, textiles and clothing, new energy vehicles, medicine and food are developing fast in the old revolutionary base areas. Last year, Ganzhou's GDP reached 460.62 billion yuan, 3.4 times that of 2011.

The old revolutionary base is also integrating into the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Cai Zhihao, an entrepreneur from the Great Bay Area has built a 600-meter-long production line at Jiangxi Zhihao electronic technology company. The mobile phone circuit boards his company produce account for 18 percent of the global market share.

Located in the Longnan Economic-Technological Development Area, Ganzhou electronic information industry science and technology center has gathered more than 170 enterprises, more than 70 percent of which are from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.