In the village, hidden in the mountains, O'Neil was deeply moved by the story of 76-year-old Long Decheng, whose family was mired in poverty until 2013. Shortly after President Xi Jinping raised the concept of "targeted poverty alleviation" in the village, the family began to prosper from the development of local tourism.

"She (Long Decheng) must have an incredibly hard life living in these remote mountains, but she still has this great positive energy. This is the greatest testament to the Long March spirit - resilience," O'Neil said.

Recent achievements

Kidwai observed the same spirit in Guizhou. He said he was struck by how far the province has come in such a short time. In 1978, its per capita GDP was less than one-half the national average, but now the southwestern province is posting double-digit growth and cruising on the information superhighway.

The press tour has been trending online since it began. As of Monday, 116,195 related entries had been published online, and there have been 74,107 posts on Sina Weibo - China's Twitter-like service - alone. The two official articles about the event garnered 640 million views.

China Daily's foreign reporters have written a number of articles to record their journeys, which can be found on chinadaily.com.cn.

"I hope to provide an outside perspective on a part of history that my Chinese counterparts have known all their lives. I believe I can shine a different light on issues we encountered that have already been framed in a certain way by the media that came before us," O'Neil said.

Contact the writer at liujing-4@chinadaily.com.cn