Amir&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure Series. 2025: Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Shaanxi Provinces’ Red Tour. Short videos with transcripts, captioned photos, articles and commentary. The REAL Chinese people you don’t know!

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Introduction

Looking back on our whole trip, Jinggangshan and later Yan’an, in Shaanxi Province were among the hightlight locations. There is so much history that happened on the ground under our feet, when one realizes that all the museums, parks and monuments we visited were bloody battlegrounds during China’s never ending civil war, from 1924 till liberation in 1949.

Video

Transcript

How popular is Mao Zedong? There are groups like this all over Jinggangshan. It’s just unbelievable. They’re everywhere. And a lot of young people, a lot of students, a lot of kids, so their interest is very, very high. Very, very high.

Photos by Amir

#1: this is the entrance to the Nanshan Torch of Freedom Park, which is a big tall hill with the celebrated monument up top. During our trip, we saw hundreds of groups like this, both children and adults. Red Tourism in China is immensely popular and growing. 

#2: the Nanshan Torch of Freedom Park entrance is full of communist-socialist revolutionary spirit. The big bronze statue on the left shows peasant-worker soldiers marching towards victory, hoisting the Red Army flag used during the civil war, carrying only spears and carbines. The flag has a black hammer and sickle on a gold star with a solid red background.

The two phrases on the left say,

The Chinese people are one (big) family.

Red Gene generations pass (communism-socialism) down to the next.

The top of the stairs is discussed in the next photo.

#3: at the entrance of the park is one of the hundreds of quotes by Mao Zedong that we saw throughout our journey, in his iconic calligraphic writing style.

Mao Zedong’s calligraphic writing style is commonly referred to in Mandarin as Maoti (毛体), which literally means “Mao style” or “Mao script.”

This term specifically denotes the distinctive cursive and semi-cursive calligraphy Mao Zedong used in his handwritten documents, poems, and public inscriptions. 毛体 is characterized by its bold, fluid, dynamic strokes and strong personal flair, blending elements of traditional Chinese calligraphy—especially the caoshu (草书, cursive script)—with Mao’s own expressive and revolutionary aesthetic. The style is widely recognized in China and has even been digitized into fonts used in signage, publications, and official contexts.

This elderly gentleman was getting his picture taken in front of it and the lapel pin on his shirt tells me that he is a member of the Communist Party of China. All the parquet is salt and pepper granite. The Chinese spare no expense for their public parks and monuments.

Mao’s quote says,

Carry forward the revolutionary tradition
and win still greater glory.

发扬革命传统

争取更大光荣

(Fachang mingge chuantong

zhengqu gengda guangrong).

Almost 80 years later, the Chinese people’s red genes are continuing to replicate in today’s generation.

#4: the whole park is like a green jungle, but these days with nice, comfy walking paths. Close your eyes and imagine just the hilly jungle, with communists giving everything they had to keep it in their hands from Chiang Kai-Shek and his fascist KMT, to realize what they sacrificed.

#5: Chinese parks almost always have very informative information panels throughout. This one is in Chinese, English and Korean. Take a minute or two to read this and the next panel to see what they went through.

#6: ibid.

#7: at the top of Nanshan (which means “South Mountain”) is the iconic Torch of Freedom monument. At 34 meters in height, you can see it popping up on the horizon and you drive around Jinggangshan. It has become a symbol for this town in its signage and promotion. Again, this parquet is all salt and pepper granite.

#8: getting underneath the torch is humbling and inspiring, as two citizens/soldiers keep the flame of revolutionary freedom flying in the face of terrible adversity and sacrifice. The foundation upon which it stands represents the communist base created in Jinggangshan in 1927.

The four blazing red characters in Mao’s script say,

星火抓传 (xīng huǒ zhuā chuán).

This is a variation or stylized rendering of the famous Maoist slogan “星星之火，可以燎原” (xīng xīng zhī huǒ, kěyǐ liáoyuán), which means “A single spark can start a prairie fire.”

The characters “抓传” (zhuā chuán) do not form a standard phrase on their own, but appear to be a creative abbreviation or artistic representation of the concept of “spreading” or “passing on” the spark (“星火”) — implying “grasping and transmitting” the revolutionary flame.

#9: for such a big bronze work, the detail of the hands is striking.

#10: as you walk around the torch, some angles make it look like a comet streaking across the sky.

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