The Long March is Communist China's founding myth. Seventy years afterwards, Sun Shuyun set out to retrace its steps and discovered the true history behind the legend. The facts: in 1934, in the midst of civil war, the Communist party and its 200,000 soldiers were forced from their bases by the Nationalists. After that, truth and legend begin to blur: led by Mao Zedong, the Communists set off on a strategic retreat to the distant barren north of China, thousands of miles away. Only one in five reached their destination, where, the legend goes, they gathered strength and returned to launch the new China in the heat of revolution. Sun journeys to remote villages along the route, interviews aged survivors and visits local archives. She uncovers shocking stories of starvation, disease, and desertion, of ruthless purges, of thousands of futile deaths. Many who survived the March report that their suffering continued long after the "triumph" of the revolution, culminating in the horrific years of the Cultural Revolution.--From publisher description