NANCHANG, July 9 (Xinhua) -- A special exhibit in the form of a German-made hand-cranked sewing machine sits quietly in a display case in the memorial museum of the Central Red Army's departure for the Long March in Yudu County, east China's Jiangxi Province.
With faded golden patterns, this timeworn machine witnessed the entire Long March, a roughly 12,500-kilometer trek later described by American journalist Harrison Salisbury as "a great human epic."
More than 90 years ago, Ge Jiediao, a Red Army soldier and tailor from Yudu, carried the sewing machine on a shoulder pole across the Yudu River and embarked on the Long March.
The soldier's grandson Ge Jiuchang recalled, "My grandfather was in his early twenties then. Despite the immense hardships of scaling snow-capped mountains and traversing grasslands on the Long March, he shouldered the machine that weighed about 25 kilograms across the trek of 12,500 kilometers."
According to Hu Xiaoqiong, a docent of the museum, the Red Army occupied Changting County in the nearby province of Fujian, also in east China, and took over a clothes factory there in 1929. Ge, then 16, was wounded by a bullet in the chest. During his recovery, he volunteered at a uniform factory and helped make the Red Army's first standard military uniforms.
Five years later, more than 80,000 Red Army soldiers began the Long March, and the captured sewing machine was handed to Ge.
Along the arduous journey, Ge was advised to discard the cumbersome sewing machine, yet he steadfastly refused. Whenever he had a spare moment, he would turn the handwheel and mend worn uniforms for his comrades. He survived the march and arrived in northern Shaanxi Province in northwest China with the Central Red Army in October 1935, with the sewing machine still by his side.
Decades later, Volker Haering, a 57-year-old travel writer from the sewing machine's country of origin, tried to retrace the same route.
In October 2023, Haering and his companion set out from Jiangxi Province, and traveled nearly 7,000 kilometers to Shaanxi Province on electric bicycles, a journey that took them 138 days.
Throughout the expedition, they often spent freezing nights without sleep. Crossing the first 4,100-meter snow mountain nearly drained their strength. Beset by high-altitude conditions, undulating landscapes, persistent headwinds and equipment breakdowns, they were ultimately compelled to alter their route to avoid stretches that were too hard to pass without electric power.
"A Chinese veteran who had survived the march once told me 'if you don't understand the spirit of the Long March, you cannot truly understand China,'" Haering said.
"The march tested human endurance to its limits, and in doing so forged a spirit of perseverance that Chinese people still draw on today," he noted, while adding that the Long March hasn't faded from Chinese people's lives with time, but rather has continued in a different form.
Having cycled more than 60,000 kilometers across China and written several books about traveling in the country, Haering spoke highly of the travel experience in China, noting that digital tools, ranging from mobile payment systems to electronic mapping applications, have become seamlessly embedded in all facets of travel, greatly enhancing convenience.
"I really do recommend that people go and see China for themselves," he said.
In his later years, Ge frequently spoke to his family of his wish to open a tailor shop in his native Yudu County, often expressing concern over whether his fellow villagers still had warm clothing to wear. The county, long held back by weak infrastructure and limited industry, was lifted out of poverty in 2020 during China's nationwide poverty alleviation campaign.
More than 90 years on, Ge's humble wish has been answered and far surpassed. At present, Yudu boasts over 3,850 textile and garment companies, which together provide employment for more than 300,000 people.
"People often say that I have inherited my grandfather's craftsmanship," said Ge Jiuchang, 50, who currently heads a production team at a garment factory in Yudu, overseeing 15 sewing workers.
Aiming to become a premier fashion industry cluster, the county has also launched a fashion center featuring a fabric library, a digital ordering system and an e-commerce live-streaming hub, offering access to more than 17 million fabric samples online. ■
