China has stepped up efforts to promote "red tourism" which features visits to sites with significance of revolutionary history of China.
The ‘Red tourism’ focuses on the historical heritage of the Chinese Communist Party for tourism development.
Significance of the glorification of the Chinese revolution are:
It aims to improve the education of the party’s revolutionary traditions, promote patriotism especially among youth, and stimulate economic development in revolutionary areas.
The elimination of rural poverty, along with promoting the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
At the heart of China’s flourishing red tourism is the Long March. It includes locations and the choreographed stories of how the founding father of Red China, Mao Zedong, and his comrades battled for the communist revolution in 1949.
Long March
The Long March was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army during the Chinese Civil War (1934-35).
There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west.
It was a key moment in the civil war, and also in the development of communism in China. Mao Zedong emerged as the leader of communist forces from the long march. He led the communist to victory over the nationalists.
