BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- One man, one horse and more than a year on the road.

　　In 2017, Luo Jianhua set out on horseback from Ruijin in east China to retrace the historic Long March. His wife, Ding Qimei, followed in a support vehicle.

　　Together, they crossed 81 counties and districts across 11 provincial-level regions before reaching Wuqi in northwest China, completing the journey in one year and nine days.

　　In 2024, Luo and Ding took to the road again with their daughter and grandniece, this time tracing the route of the Red Army"s West Route Army.

　　Born into a farming family in southwest China"s Guizhou Province, Luo grew up hearing stories of the Red Army from his elders. One saying stayed with him: "When life gets tough, think of the Red Army"s 12,500-kilometer Long March."

　　A drone photo shows people visiting the revolutionary site of the Battle of Qinggangpo in Zunyi City, southwest China"s Guizhou Province, Sept. 11, 2026. (Xinhua/Yang Wenbin)

　　Luo left school at 17 to make a living, later running businesses ranging from a coal-washing plant and a pig farm to an organic rice cultivation company.

　　While the stories he had heard as a child sustained him through difficult times, Luo long harbored a desire to experience firsthand what the Red Army had endured.

　　STEPPING INTO HISTORY

　　Hailed by American journalist Edgar Snow as "an odyssey unequaled in modern times," the Long March took place at a time when China was beset by foreign aggression, social turmoil and destitution.

　　Facing encirclement by overwhelming and much better-armed Kuomintang forces, the Communist Party of China (CPC)-led Red Army embarked on the epic military trek from 1934 to 1936.