Ninety years ago, two rivers stood in the Red Army's way: the Jinsha and the Dadu in Sichuan. Both appear in Mao Zedong's famous poem The Long March. On the Jinsha, more than 20,000 soldiers crossed in seven boats over seven days and nights. Further north, 17 soldiers crossed the Dadu in a single boat under enemy fire. Local boatmen and people of different ethnic groups helped them make it across.

Ninety years later, CGTN's Yang Xinmeng finds a very different landscape along these two rivers. The rapids and dangerous crossings of the past have given way to bridges, reservoirs and clean-energy projects. The rivers that once stood in the Red Army's way now power and connect the communities along their banks, in a very different China.