For decades, when the summer sun relentlessly beat down on the hillsides of northern Shaanxi province, farmers had to drape clothes over their heads just to escape the heat. Today, they can walk up the mountain and cool off under any tree they like. Yan Zhixiong, former Party secretary of Nangou village in Wuqi county, looks back on a transformation that took more than two decades to achieve. When the Grain for Green Program reached Wuqi in the 1990s, the county was among the first in China to return farmland to forest and grassland. But the villagers were initially reluctant to give up their fields. They were more concerned about putting food on the table than planting trees. "When we talked about returning farmland to forest and grassland, the key was to get villagers on board," said Yan, 62. "The villagers said to me, 'Yan Zhixiong, we plant so much and still don't have enough to eat. Now you want to leave us just 2 mu (0.13 hectares) of flat land per person. What are we supposed to eat?'" The government promised to provide grain to compensate farmers for the crops they would lose, but many remained skeptical until they...

YouTube video by Kirin J Callinan

Farmer Zhou Xiaoqin picks apples at her orchard in Nangou Village in Wuqi County of Yan'an City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Oct. 2, 2026. The year 2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Central Red Army's Long March. Wuqi is the county where the Long March ended. Today, the county is home to many revolutionary sites. The Long March was an epic military trek from 1934 to 1936, during which the Communist Party of China-led Red Army broke through encirclement by the Kuomintang forces. Red Army soldiers braved raging rivers, snow-covered mountains and treacherous grasslands, with some marching as far as 12,500 kilometers. The maneuver helped lay the foundation for the eventual victory of the Chinese revolution. The spirit of the Long March has been passed down through generations in Wuqi, inspiring local people to forge ahead and pursue development. In the past, the county had long suffered from fragile environment, severe desertification and natural disasters. Since launching large-scale ecological restoration efforts in 1998, the county has seen its forest and grass coverage rate rise from 19.6 percent in 1997 to 72.9 percent at present, bringing significant improvements to the local environment. Meanwhile, Wuqi has actively developed...

YouTube video by Action Cut

YouTube video by BBE TV

Пожалуй, нет более известного исторического военного деятеля, чем древний философ и полководец Сунь-цзы, чья основополагающая работа «Искусство войны» и сегодня, к сожалению, широко цитируется.

YouTube video by Kirin J Callinan