Over 4,000 meters of snow, and their first major peak on the Long March. Most of the soldiers were from the south. They had never even seen snow. They climbed in straw shoes, some went barefoot. Step by step, up through the drifts.

Ninety years later, CGTN's Yang Xinmeng stands on the same mountain range – Jiajin Mountain. No snow on the summit in summer, but the wind still bites. The mountain hasn't changed. The crossing has. What once took a frozen, barefoot climb, now takes ten minutes by car, through a tunnel. Every generation has its own mountain to cross.