China torch relay: Jinggangshan

The Long March from Jiangxi is part of communist folklore

In the pantheon of the Chinese Communist Party, few places rank higher than Jinggangshan.

The remote town in Jiangxi province is known as the cradle of the revolution and is regarded as the birthplace of the People's Liberation Army.

During the late 1920s a short-lived alliance between the communists and the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek came to an end.

Chiang purged communists from his group, known as the Kuomintang, and went on to form a nationalist government. The communists fled to the countryside.

CHINA RELAY CITIES IN FOCUS Use the map to see the full Olympic torch relay route or read about some of the key cities: Full route map, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Jinggangshan, Shanghai, Nanjing, Huangshan, Three Gorges, Kaili, Lhasa, Urumqi, Xian, Yanji, Weihai, Qufu, Anyang, Beijing.

Mao Zedong and about 1,000 troops took refuge in the remote mountains of Jinggangshan in 1927.

According to official communist history it was here that Mao formed his first soviet, turned his rebel army into a proper fighting force and crystallised his belief in a peasants' revolution.

The communists skirmished with Kuomintang forces around the mountains of Jiangxi for about six years until they were forced to flee.

What followed was one of the most celebrated events in communist folklore.

Mao and his comrades walked for an entire year, covering some 6,000 miles, to set up a base in distant Yan'an. As one of the starting points of the Long March, Jinggangshan's place in history was assured.

The torch arrives in Jinggangshan on 15 May.