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Ed Jocelyn has arrived in this capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province on his second "Long March" following the route of the Chinese Red Army which originated the famous Long March 70 years ago.
The 39-year-old British author published the book titled "New Long March" after finishing his first 6,300 km "Long March" which was first covered by the main forces of the Central Red Army, from October 2002 to November 2003 with partner Andrew McEwen who is also British.
The two traveled on foot as Chinese soldiers did during the Red Army's epic Long March in the mid 1930's.
This time, Jocelyn planned to trek another Long March route as did by the Second Front Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army with a new partner, his Chinese friend Yang Xiao.
The two adventurers left central China's Hunan Province on November 19, 2005, the same date when the Second Front Army departed on the 12,500-kilometer march in 1934 in order to transfer its major forces from areas along the Yangtze River to a revolutionary base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province while evading the pursuing Kuomintang army during the civil war.
Jocelyn said that they would faithfully follow the route of the original march by starting in Sangzhi County in central China's Hunan Province, passing through Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan and Gansu provinces, and finally reaching Jiangtaibao in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region on October 22, 2006, the same date for the army's destination 70 years ago.
According to the plan, they will leave Guizhou on March 29. The whole journey would last 339 days.
Jocelyn said he has collected more interesting first-hand documents about the Red Army's Long March on his second march for another book.
The Chinese version of Jocelyn's first book sold some 20,000 copies in China.
(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2006)
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