New Long Marchers march into history ( 2003-11-10 14:39) (bjtoday.com)
Finally, they made it. After 384 days on the New Long March trail, Ed Jocelyn
and Andrew McEwen reached their destination, Wuqi County, Shaanxi Province, at
around 5:30 pm Monday.
Twenty-five
kilometers out of Wuqi.
Starting on October 16,
2002 from Yudu, Jiangxi Province, Jocelyn and McEwen have been retracing the
trail of the original Long March of the Chinese Red Army, crossing ten provinces
and autonomous regions. In doing so, they have become the first foreigners to
tread this route since Otto Braun, the German military advisor who accompanied
the original Long Marchers.
Reaching the end one day later than scheduled and two weeks after the date
the original Long March finished, the two Englishmen looked both excited and
exhausted. Surrounded by local school children, they walked through the curious
welcoming crowd like heroes, with red flags draped over their shoulders, each
waving a bunch of flowers.
The first thing both of them did after settling into the Wuqi Hotel was to
call their parents on their satellite phone, they told Beijing Today.
“It has ben a very long journey. I have never been more tired in all my life,
but today is one of our happiest days because we’ve come to the end,” said
35-year-old Jocelyn. “And even if I were offered one million dollars to rat the
journey, I would say no, though I have no regrets about having done it.”
“Wuqi before was kind of dreamland to us, but finally Wuqi is a real place,”
McEwen, 37, addedFor the previous 23 days, the duo walked an average of 30
kilometers per day. And on the final day, they walked a record 37 kilometers.
Beijing Today caught up with them Monday morning at Xinzhaixiang, about 25
kilometers from Wuqi, in time to witness their last brunch on the road.
They arrived at Xinzhaixiang at about 10:10, slightly ahead of schedule.
Walking into a roadside restaurant, the duo ordered two plates of chaomianpian
(fried noodles) “with eggs but no meat.”
Although only McEwen is a vegetarian, ordethe way has become common practice
for them, just to keep things simple. “It’s really lucky that we have been
recently walking across the northwest part of Cna, where noodles are the staple
food. That’s good to my stomach,” McEwen tolBeijing Today.
Suffering from gastritis for the past seven months, McEwen was forced to
return to Beijing in late July for two weeks of medical treatment. But he
managed to subsequently rejoin Jocelyn, contrary to expectations.
When asked what was the biggest benefit of completing the New Long March,
both hesitated to give a definite answer. But they both agreed that learning to
become “aggressive and not so courteous” was one of the changes the experience
had made to their characters. “I feel more confident to be able to find positive
resolutions in handling difficult sitions,” Jocelyn added, saying they still
need time to ponder the deeper benefits.The two marchers have clearly paid a
lot, both physiologically, economically and mentally. One direct outcome is the
significant loss of weight that many of their friends have commented on. Another
is that both are now deeply in debt.
Neither, however, view such results as sacrifice. It was those red army
veterans who truly suffered during the original Long March, they pointed out.
Their New Long March, equipped with modern communications equipment and with no
enemies on their heels, was a relatively comfortable expedition.
“The veterans, not us, should best understand he real Long March spirit. And
our plan is to study and document the living history along the route of the Long
March,” McEwen explained. “Another important reason that we want to study the
Long March is because it’s founding myth of new China, which is the most
important story to understand modern China.”
For their study, the pair have met 11 Long March veterans and interviewed 107
witnesses, compiling two notebooks of diaries and over 20,000 photographs. A New
Long March photo exhibition is due to Monument in Beijing on January 15, 2004,
and an album of photos will be released at the same time. A book recording their
experience is also planned for next year, to coincide with the 70th anniversary
of the original Long March.
“Actually the ending of the New ong March trail is only the beginning of our
research, as we will continue to visit more veterans back in Beijing and collect
more material,” said Jocelyn. “In this sense, we are still on the road for the
truth of the story.”