The Long March spirit not only resonates across the Chinese nation, but is also a source of inspiration that transcends borders and touches hearts around the world.

In 1936, American writer and journalist Edgar Snow conducted firsthand interviews in the revolutionary base areas of northern Shaanxi Province led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). He later published the book Red Star Over China, which provided the world with a comprehensive account of the Red Army's Long March and the reality of the tenacious resistance against Japan waged by the military and civilians in the base areas. Many international figures, inspired and moved by the stories of the CPC and the Red Army's Long March, traveled thousands of kilometers to China.

From Canadian doctor Norman Bethune, who went to the frontlines of the Chinese battlefield to treat the wounded, to the American couple Erwin Engst and Joan Hinton, who went to the highlands to establish a ranch, to American teacher Ronald Sakolsky, who reunited with desert fighter Yin Yuzhen in the Mu Us Sandy Land after 26 years – the Long March spirit has inspired generation after generation, binding their lives closely to China and leading them to complete their own versions of the Long March.

Canadian doctor's 'Long March' against death on China's front lines

In 1938, the renowned thoracic surgeon Norman Bethune led a medical team to China to support the resistance against Japanese aggression. In a letter to a friend, he wrote: "If you want to know why I am going to China, please read Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China!"

Bethune met with the CPC leaders in Yan'an of northern Shaanxi Province and elsewhere, and declared: "I came to China to work at the front. The war situation is critical. Please send me to the front line as soon as possible!" On the battlefield in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei resistance area, he organized medical teams to treat the wounded and proposed "setting up the operating table as close to the firing line as possible." 

In one battle, he worked for 69 hours straight, performing 115 operations with a success rate of over 80%. On battlefields lacking blood supplies, he donated blood for the wounded multiple times –  300 milliliters at one point alone – and organized volunteer blood transfusion teams. He compiled battlefield medical textbooks, trained medical personnel and established the first model hospital for the CPC army.

Sadly, while treating wounded soldiers, Bethune's finger was infected, which developed into blood poisoning. Bethune passed away in November 1939 at the age of 49. In his last letter to Nie Rongzhen, commander of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei military area, Bethune wrote that his two years in China were the happiest and most meaningful of his life.

The Fenghuangshan Revolutionary Site in Yan'an, where CPC leader Mao Zedong and Bethune first met, now displays a photo exhibition commemorating Bethune. Docent Qiao Cuicui said: "As a physician renowned in Europe and America, he commanded a very high income at the time, yet he gave up a comfortable life and came to China – something very few people could do."

Mao Zedong was deeply saddened upon hearing of Bethune's death. He wrote in an article titled In Memory of Norman Bethune: "A foreigner, motivated by no self-interest whatsoever, took the cause of the Chinese people's liberation as his own. What spirit is this? This is the spirit of internationalism." He also called on the whole Party to learn from Bethune's "utter devotion to others without any thought of self."

Scott Davidson, site manager and curator of the Bethune Memorial House National Historic Site in Canada, once said that Bethune found his true calling in China, and that his spirit inspires people to keep working for health and peace more than 80 years later.

US couple's 'Long March' to deliver better milk to Chinese children

Another young American influenced by Snow was Erwin Engst, who came to China in 1946. After seeing ordinary people dying of famine while officials from the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party hoarded grain for profiteering, Engst made his way to Yan'an, the then headquarters of the CPC in northern Shaanxi Province. Driven by his interest in agriculture, he was assigned to work at Guanghua Farm, the first farm established by the CPC. Engst said: "In America, you work for yourself, to earn a living. But in Yan'an, you work in a large collective, where everyone shares one common goal: to build a new society that is equal and free, where no one exploits anyone else!"

Joan Hinton was one of the few female physicists involved in the US Manhattan Project. When she saw the atomic bomb she had helped develop used in World War II, her ideal of "pure science" was shattered. In 1948, encouraged by Engst, her fiancé, she traveled to Yan'an. They married there in 1949, and shortly afterward were asked to go to Chengchuan in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region (present day border area between Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Shaanxi Province) to establish the Party's first livestock breeding farm – Sanbian Ranch.

The ranch sits on the Inner Mongolia Plateau – a cold, sparsely populated land of scarce supplies, where grasslands meet sand. Yet Engst and Hinton overcame the harsh conditions, with the help of modern breeding concepts. Through scientific reproduction and immunization, they improved the quantity and quality of the herd, improved pasture grass, researched dairy products, and also designed and built a windmill to make use of the region's abundant wind resources. They taught themselves Mongolian and soon became friends with the local herders. Hinton also learned from a Mongolian woman named Gal how to make butter and prevent cream from spoiling.

They later moved around different parts of China, but devoted their lives to advancing China's dairy cattle industry. In 1982, the horizontal direct-cooling milk tank series designed by Hinton reached the international advanced level, filling a gap in China. It was awarded the "Magnolia" Award by the Shanghai Municipal Government and was in operation for decades, attracting over 10,000 visitors for study and observation.

The couple once said: "We strive to mechanize animal husbandry – using machines for milking, feeding and manure clearing – to raise labor efficiency, lower milk costs and improve cattle hygiene, so that more children can drink more and better milk and the people's health can be strengthened."

The two passed away in Beijing, in 2003 and 2010, respectively. Their ashes were scattered on the Chengchuan grasslands of Otog Front Banner in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, where they once worked and which they deeply loved. Their eldest son, Fred Engst, said that his father's motivation for raising cattle in China "was helping a backward country become strong."

'Green Long March' of a US teacher and China's desert-fighting hero

In 1999, an American teacher working in China, Ronald Sakolsky, saw on television the story of Yin Yuzhen planting trees in the Mu Us Sandy Land and raised $5,000 to support her. The following year, he visited the Mu Us Sandy Land for the first time. He watched as Yin carried bundles of saplings on her back into the undulating sandy terrain, planted them with a shovel, and watered them bucket by bucket with a shoulder pole. At the time, Yin had not a single piece of mechanized equipment. Faced with the vast stretches of sand, Sakolsky shook his head, believing desert control was an "impossible" task – yet he still planted saplings alongside Yin.

Sakolsky then returned to the United States, and the two lost contact. Yin remained in the Mu Us Sandy Land, planting trees day after day. She said: "I must prove it to him. I can't let his money be wasted. We Chinese keep our word, and we are trustworthy in what we do."

By 2026, the donation from years past had grown into more than 50,000 large trees. Yin launched a campaign to find Sakolsky and with the help of a social media post, she located Sakolsky in just 26 hours. Later, he returned to the sandy land and saw that "the little saplings I planted back then have grown into such tall trees." He said that "the real hero is Ms. Yin." With 26 years of perseverance, Yin fulfilled a cross-border promise.

The Mu Us Sandy Land spans Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shaanxi Province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Gansu Province, with Uxin Banner situated deep within it. About 70 years ago, over 90% of the banner's land was desertified. With support from China's "Three-North" Shelterbelt Forest Program and local governments, Yin has brought more than 4,600 hectares of sandy land under control, planted over 8 million trees and inspired more than 240 neighboring households, each planting over 200 hectares.

Today, as the four provincial regions join forces to advance afforestation in the Mu Us Sandy Land, 80% of it is covered in green, writing a "Green Long March" in the new era.