By Wang Ru Seventy-three-year-old Li Min remembers the day in 1949 when she experienced the first National Day parade from the central leadership compound of Zhongnanhai, on the western side of Tian'anmen Square. From her Chang'an Avenue vantage point, she clearly heard the jubilant crowds roar their excitement. "Long live the People's Republic of China, Long live Chairman Mao!" the then 13-year-old said, remembering the thousands of excited people expressing their happiness, optimism and respect for her father - Mao Zedong - who proclaimed the founding of New China from the Tian'anmen Rostrum. "My father had supper with us in Zhongnanhai that evening. He looked very tired but quite happy," Li recalled during a special gathering 60 years later. On Sept 27, days before the 60th anniversary celebration, more than 200 people - the children of former leaders and generals who helped found New China - gathered in Wanshou Hotel in west Beijing. Hugs, salutes, smiles, greetings and the joy of reunion filled the hall. The sons, daughters and relatives of those early leaders signed their names on eight Red Army flags to mark the nation's Oct 1 birthday. Zhai Yunying, 83, the widow of Liu Yalou (1910-65), the first air force commander for the People's Republic of China, was among them. Despite the fact that she now relies on a walking stick, she bent down to sign her name on the flags. Chen Xiaolu, son of Marshal Chen Yi (1900-72), one of the nation's founding fathers and China's foreign minister between 1958 and 1972, also attended, along with his wife, Su Huining, daughter of general Su Yu (1907-84). "The country is getting stronger and richer. We wish that our fathers could see it in heaven," said Chen. "This country experienced so many ups and downs in the past 60 years. I feel happy today," Li Min added. During the gathering, 92-year-old former Red Army solider Pu Wenqing and 94-year-old Zhu Zhongli, wife of Wang Jiaxiang (1906-74), one of the earliest members of the Communist Party of China and ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1949, sang revolutionary songs. "I still have passion and energy to serve the country. Let's celebrate our motherland's birthday together," Zhu said before starting to sing. "In 10 years time, many of us probably will not be able to meet together to celebrate the 70th anniversary," said Xu Wenhui, 70, who organized and funded the event. "So, we cherish every minute today." Xu's father, Xu Haidong (1900-70), was nominated as one of the 10 senior generals of the founding of New China. Xu Haidong led the 25th Division of the Red Army successfully finished the Long March and was wounded several times during many battles. His valor on the battlefield earned him the nickname "Tiger Xu" and led to him being named as one of the Kuomintang's three most wanted people, together with Mao Zedong and Zhu De. Xu Wenhui was born in 1939 in a cave-house in Yan'an in Shaanxi, where the Red Army was headquartered. Four months later, her father's troops transferred to Anhui province, the frontline during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45). "My father taught me to be a righteous person and help those in need," said Xu, who became a doctor. Qu Duyi, 87, sat quietly at the table, smiling at her old friends, especially those who had worked with her in Moscow. On Oct 1, 1949, Qu accompanied delegates from the Soviet Union as they stood on the Tian'anmen Rostrum to witness the historic moment. She went on to become the first person to broadcast the news about the founding of New China in Russian, worldwide. Qu is the daughter of Qu Qiubai (1899-1935), one of the first leaders of the Communist Party of China. She and her husband went to Moscow and established a branch of the Xinhua News Agency there. "Although the Soviet Union was the only country to officially acknowledge New China then, we knew the country would get stronger," she said. Li Tete, 85, was full of thoughts of her father at the party. "It feels great to meet so many friends today," she said with a smile, remembering Li Fuchun (1900-75), who was vice-premier of New China in charge of the country's economy and heavy industry. "He read documents and books at night and got up early every day for his first meeting. He cared about nothing but reestablishing industry from the ruins," Li said. Li became a nuclear researcher and participated in China's first explosion of an atomic bomb in 1964. Zuo Taibei, 69, could remember little of her father, Zuo Quan, deputy chief of staff for the Eight Route Army. He died in combat in 1942 during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Shanxi province. Zuo was 2 years old at the time. Zuo Quan was the highest ranked military leader to die in the conflict. Zuo knows about her father, in part, from the 11 family letters he wrote during the war. "How is our daughter now? I really want to hold her in my armsI miss you," he wrote in one of his letters to his wife three days before he paid the ultimate sacrifice. "Today, we can look back on that time while enjoying the peace and happiness of our lives together. That's what my father and those millions of soldiers sacrificed their lives for," Zuo said.

By Zhu Linyong Historical revolutionary sites are becoming increasinglypopular with tourists. Zhu Linyong reviews some of the best. 1. Xibaipo The former headquarters of the CPC in Xibaipo is located in a hillside village near Hebei province's Taihang Ranges. From 1948, CPC leaders, including Mao Zedong, Zhu De and Liu Shaoqi, led major battles against the Kuomintang army from Xibaipo. The CPC's central committee convened an important meeting in Xibaipo on Sept 8, 1948. Mao put forward a timetable for eliminating the Kuomintang troops at the conference and famously said, "We will construct a new China, ruled by the working class, peasants and the petty bourgeois It is going to be the people's government." 2. Yan'an The Yan'an Revolutionary Base in Shaanxi province was the CPC-led army's main base during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945). The Red Army arrived in the city on the Loess Plateau at the end of 1935, after completing the grueling Long March, an 12,500-kilometers retreat from Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang forces. In caves carved into the loess, Mao masterminded a dazzling comeback and victory between 1937 and 1947. 3. Changzhi The then headquarters of the CPC Army in Changzhi is next to Shinao Mountain in Shanxi province's Yangquan city. CPC military commanders Peng Dehuai and Zuo Quan guided the Eighth Route Army in the successful, large-scale Hundred Regiments Offensive against the invading Japanese army from Aug 20 to Dec 5, 1940. 4. Guang'an Late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's former residence is in Paifang village outside of Sichuan province's Guang'an city. Deng was born to a peasant family on Aug 22, 1904 and lived in Paifang for 15 years. He is remembered as a Marxist, military strategist, politician and a key military leader - and most notably as the architect of the country's reform and opening-up policy. 5. Chongqing The Gele Mountain Revolutionary Cemetery is located in Chongqing municipality's Shapingba area. The area hosted Kuomintang prisons built with assistance from the US military for the stated purpose of "jailing the communists and their children". Before escaping to Taiwan in 1949, the Kuomintang army in Chongqing - the wartime capital of the Kuomintang regime - killed more than 300 communists in the prisons. 6. Zunyi The Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall is on Zijun Road in Guizhou province's Zunyi city. It was in this two-story wooden structure that Mao Zedong was elected as the CPC's leader in 1935, during the Long March. 7. Shaoshan Mao Zedong's former residence is located in Hunan province's Shaoshan, which also hosts the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. Mao was born to a peasant family in Shaoshan on Dec 26, 1893. He left in the autumn of 1910. In 1925, Mao returned to lead a local peasants' political movement and set up a Communist Party branch in his hometown. Mao is remembered as a revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, poet, political theorist and paramount leader of the Chinese Revolution. He was the key architect and founding father of New China. 8.Jinggang Mountain The Jinggang Mountain Revolutionary Museum is located in Jiangxi province. In October 1927, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Chen Yi and Peng Dehuai arrived there after the unsuccessful Changsha uprising and founded the Chinese Red Army of Workers and Peasants. It was the CPC-led army's first revolutionary base and a milestone for the founding of the People's Republic of China. 9. Nanchang The August 1st Uprising Memorial Hall is on the western end of Zhongshan Road in downtown Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province. It was in Nanchang that a significant uprising took place at 2 am on Aug 1, 1927. Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Ye Ting and He Long led the movement, celebrated as the CPC's first counterattack during a campaign by the Kuomintang government to wipe out the communists. Communist forces occupied the city for a short time before withdrawing to Jiangxi's Jinggang Mountain. The event marks the founding of an independent army under CPC leadership. 10. Jiaxing The venue of the CPC's first meeting is in the South Lake scenic area of Zhejiang province's Jiaxing city. On July 23, 1921, the first nationwide CPC assembly was staged in Shanghai. French concession police interrupted the meeting, which reconvened on a wooden ship on the South Lake in the small nearby riverside city of Jiaxing in early August. Representatives read, discussed and eventually passed the Party's first political program and resolution. The Central Bureau - the Party's leading body - was formed, heralding the CPC's official birth.

Zuo Quan (�000 1906-1942) was born in Liling District, Hunan Province, near Changsha. He was the scion of a family of landowners. After finishing middle school during the early years of the May Fourth Movement, he went to Guangdong and joined the Guomindang (GMD). He pursued a military carreer and entered the GMD-sponsored Whampoa Academy in 1924. He became acquainted there with Zhou Enlai and Nie Rongzhen. In 1925, he joined the CCP, and the next year, he attended the Communist University of the Toilers of the East in Moscow. After two years, he transferred to the Red Army Academy (Frunze Military Academy), where he met Liu Bocheng. Zuo returned to China in 1930. After arriving in the Jiangxi Soviet, Zuo became a faculty member of the Red Army Academy near Ruijin. His most important military post was as chief-of-staff to Lin Biao, which he held from 1932 up to and during the Long March. In 1935, Zuo played an important role in the maneuvers that led to the successful crossing of the Luding Bridge over the Dadu River in Sichuan. After arriving in Yan'an, Zuo held a number of high military positions. When the war with Japan broke out in 1937, he served at various times under Ye Jianying, Zhu De, Ren Bishi and Peng Dehuai. Zuo was killed in June 1942 in a skirmish with the Japanese along the Jingzhang River in Shanxi Province. Zuo translated a number of Soviet military works into Chinese. During the war, he wrote several articles on military affairs, especially on the subject of recruiting. As an early military hero, schools, towns and even folk songs have been named after him.