(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-07 19:48

NANCHANG -- Wearing bamboo hats and drab grey uniforms with rice bags slung across their shoulders, a group of men and women trudge along a narrow mountain path under the scorching sun, their clothes soaked in sweat.

It looks like a scene from China's wartime past in the first half of last century or a re-enactment for a film.

But it is in fact the Communist Party of China's (CPC) latest team-building and motivational course for senior government officials. It also has the wider purpose of discouraging corruption and arrogance before they start.

The course is run by the China Executive Leadership Academy at Jinggangshan (CELAJ), one of the three high-profile CPC cadre training institutes. The other two are based in Pudong, in Shanghai, and Yan'an, in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Carrying grain along the 4.8-km path where Mao Zedong and Zhu De, founders of Chinese military, once passed from the foot of Mount Jinggang to the top is one of the many missions newcomers are required to fulfil, says Li Xiaosan, CELAJ deputy president.

"It is no easy task to climb the mountain," says trainee Xie Jun, deputy director of the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China.

"I used a tree branch as a walking stick. When I eventually made it to the top, my clothes were soaked with sweat.

"The exercise has expelled our excitement as newcomers, and we now feel a bit more reverence for our revolutionary forerunners," says Xie.

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