China issues stamps to mark 90th anniversary of Long March victory

China Post on Thursday issued a set of six commemorative stamps marking the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, an epic undertaking in modern Chinese history.

These six stamps feature the following themes: the departure of the Red Army, the bloody Battle of the Xiangjiang River, the landmark Zunyi Meeting, the battle at Lazikou Pass, the victorious reunion of Red Army forces, and carrying forward the great Long March spirit.

In October 1934, the Communist Party of China (CPC) was forced to retreat from the Central Soviet Area in east China's Jiangxi Province and move northwest after enduring a series of encirclement campaigns by rival forces of the Chinese Kuomintang party.

The CPC-led Red Army broke through enemy blockades, crossed rugged terrain, and endured fierce battles and immense hardship. Tens of thousands of soldiers lost their lives along the way.

In the winter of 1934 during the Long March, the Red Army fought its way across the Xiangjiang River in Guangxi and broke through the Kuomintang troops' blockade, but suffered tens of thousands of casualties in the battle.

The Zunyi Meeting took place in January 1935. The meeting was a landmark event in the history of the CPC as it largely determined the fate of the Party at a critical juncture for its survival. In September that year, the Red Army captured Lazikou Pass, a narrow mountain pass flanked by steep cliffs in northwest China's Gansu Province, opening a route north. In October 1936, three main Red Army forces converged in northwestern China, marking the end of the Long March.

The Long March is never a story told merely within China. In his book "Red Star Over China," published in 1937, American journalist Edgar Snow introduced the Chinese revolution to international readers. Decades later, American journalist Harrison Salisbury retraced the route and described the Long March as "a great human epic."

The six-stamp set has a combined face value of 7.8 yuan (about 1.2 U.S. dollars), with 4.3 million sets planned for issuance. The stamps will be available for six months via designated postal outlets across China and online sales channels.