XI’AN, July 2 (Xinhua) — The place the place U.S. journalist Edgar Snow trudged his approach throughout the rugged revolutionary heartland in northwest China 9 many years in the past has been reworked with high-speed trains, upgraded orchards and improved ecological and dwelling situations.
After months of interviews in Yan’an of Shaanxi Province within the Thirties on the arid Loess Plateau, Snow turned his experiences into “Red Star Over China,” a ebook that introduced the distant but resilient land to worldwide consideration and launched the Communist Party of China (CPC) to the world in a full and trustworthy mild for the primary time.
This highlighted place witnessed essential twists within the historical past of the CPC and the nation. It served because the headquarters of the CPC Central Committee within the Thirties and Nineteen Forties, and was the place Mao Zedong and his comrades led the Chinese People’s War of Resistance in opposition to Japanese Aggression and the place the War of Liberation commenced in opposition to the reactionary Kuomintang regime, all earlier than the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
As the CPC marks its a hundred and fifth anniversary, its endeavors have essentially reworked the way forward for the Chinese individuals. Under its management, China has grow to be the world’s second-largest economic system, emerged as one of many world’s fastest-rising innovators, and established the world’s largest schooling, social safety and healthcare programs.
Having led the nation to eradicate absolute poverty, the CPC has mapped out a blueprint to principally understand modernization by 2035 and construct China into a fantastic trendy socialist nation in all respects by the center of the century.
At the Yan’an Revolutionary Memorial Hall, an exhibition targeted on the tales of Snow and different worldwide pals in Yan’an is about to open to the general public later this 12 months, aiming to draw home and abroad guests.
“With China’s growing strength, the founding stories of the CPC take on even greater significance,” mentioned Liu Ni, the memorial corridor’s curator. “What took place in Yan’an has captured more attention from the international community.”
Steeped in revolutionary historical past, Yan’an is now dwelling to 445 revolutionary websites, 19 revolutionary memorial halls and 43,000 revolutionary cultural relics, a robust draw for vacationers looking for to attach with the previous.
Fortunately, those that want to go to Yan’an at the moment now not should endure the arduous journey that Snow as soon as undertook. In December 2025, the primary high-speed rail line in Yan’an formally started operations, slashing the journey time between Yan’an and Xi’an, Shaanxi’s capital, to round one hour, with the brand new route dealing with greater than 1.2 million passenger journeys inside simply three months.
Meanwhile, devoted trains for examine excursions can be found to college students heading to Yan’an. Among the current guests was Ding Jiabao, a scholar from Xijing University in Shaanxi, who joined some 300 fellow members on a two-day program.
“All the revolutionary cultural relics, revolutionary sites and real stories of heroes have helped me understand the original aspiration and strength behind the Yan’an Spirit,” Ding mentioned.
Forged by revolutionaries and communists of the older generations, the Yan’an Spirit of sustaining the right political route, looking for fact from info, serving the individuals wholeheartedly, and being diligent and enterprising stays a supply of inspiration for the Party and a guiding pressure for the area’s improvement.
Once depicted by Snow as considered one of China’s poorest areas, Yan’an has capitalized on its pure endowments, together with ample sunshine and important diurnal temperature variation, to develop its apple trade, making it a key driver of rural revitalization.
Song Wenquan, 67, has witnessed the commercial upgrading over his 30-plus years of cultivation efforts. Today, his orchard is totally managed by an expert service group, with meticulous, standardized care that yields high quality fruit. “It saves time, labor and money, and the apples are bigger and fetch a better price,” he mentioned.
Song’s expertise epitomizes the revolutionary base’s broader push to ship tangible advantages to its rural residents. In current years, Yan’an has upgraded giant swathes of its getting old orchards, making 80 p.c of farm work mechanizable.
Last 12 months, Yan’an produced 5.28 million tonnes of apple, with a complete output worth of 62 billion yuan (about 9.1 billion U.S. {dollars}), and the apple trade accounted for over 60 p.c of native farmers’ operational earnings. From 1999 to 2025, notably, the per capita disposable earnings of rural residents in Yan’an surged from 1,381 yuan to 18,759 yuan.
“Apple is not only a source of prosperity for local people, but also an excellent choice for greening the slopes of Yan’an,” mentioned Lu Shuguo, director of the town’s fruit trade improvement middle, including that by way of large-scale apple cultivation, Yan’an has made outstanding progress in curbing soil erosion and enhancing ecological atmosphere.
Data exhibits that Yan’an now boasts vegetation protection of greater than 80 p.c, because of years of afforestation efforts on this ecologically fragile space. “In the past, when it rained, the water running off the slopes was thick with mud, but now it runs clear,” mentioned native apple grower Wang Junmin.
Alongside the environmental features, native individuals’s dwelling situations are steadily enhancing.
In an alley known as Xingfu, which means happiness in Chinese, residents was sad with the rundown situations they confronted. In response to their issues, a scientific facelift has reworked the place, changing weathered partitions with vibrant murals.
“New streetlights have been installed, the guardrails repaired and the road repaved. All these renovations make me feel reassured,” mentioned Wang Zhiming, an area resident on this alley.
More detailed measures are additionally underway to fulfill the various wants of residents, starting from including extra leisure services for the aged to screening high-quality movies for youngsters.
“They may seem like trivial matters, but we must handle them in a way that truly touches people’s hearts,” mentioned Li Man, Party department secretary of the Dangwanjie Community, which administers the alley.