Qinghai's Baima County, on Long March route, builds barley and snow tea industries
In short
Xinhua and China News Service both carried a feature on Baima County in Qinghai's Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, described as the only place in Qinghai the Red Army's Long March passed through, where the Second and Fourth Front Armies rested for more than 20 days in July 1936. The report says the troops ate wild vegetables rather than take villagers' barley, and that the county now grows highland black barley and processes Tibetan snow tea, with a barley flour plant in Wangrou Village and some villagers selling barley products via livestream.
Read the full story 2 min read
A feature carried by both Xinhua and China News Service describes Baima County in Qinghai's Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture as the only place in Qinghai that the Red Army's Long March passed through. In July 1936, the report says, troops of the Red Second and Fourth Front Armies entered the county and rested in river valleys for more than 20 days. The two outlets ran the piece under the headline “One grain of highland barley, two generations' journey”. [ 1 , 2 ]
With supplies short at the time, the feature says, the troops followed the “Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention”, gathering wild vegetables and boiling livestock bones for soup instead of taking villagers' grain or damaging crops. Herder Garma Qor, 70, of Banqian Village in Dengta Township, told the outlet his grandfather often recounted that the Red Army's discipline won local trust, prompting villagers who had hidden in the mountains to return and bring barley and butter, serve as guides and help wounded stragglers. [ 2 ]
Today, the report says, the same land holds contiguous highland black barley fields. In Wangrou Village, Ya'ertang Township, a barley flour processing plant is running and drying yards are filled with black barley awaiting processing. Township party secretary Dangzhengjie said improved seeds, farm machinery and farmland protection subsidies have been promoted and a highland black barley brand established; red study tourism brings visitors and a market, and barley products including roasted barley flour, black barley milk tea and biscuits now sell beyond the plateau. Some villagers sell the products through livestreams, he said, and the village collective economy has grown steadily, with farmers and herders earning income close to home. [ 2 ]
The feature also describes Tibetan snow tea and morel mushrooms as under-forest industries supported by the ecology of the Make River forest area. Jing Guomei, head of Baima County Tibetan Snow Tea Industry Development Co., said the tea is made from young leaves of flower-leaf and variable-leaf crabapple using “traditional plus modern” techniques. She said the industry has shifted from wild harvesting to cultivated planting, from traditional experience to scientific certification, from traditional processing to modern technology, and from offline direct sales to combined online and offline channels. [ 2 ]
The report frames the two periods as a 90-year span connecting the Long March era to current rural development in Tibetan communities along the Make River. It gives no output, revenue, household or visitor figures for the industries it describes. [ 2 ]
Why it matters
Both documents are state-media features, and they frame the county's barley and tea industries as the continuation of a journey that began with the Long March in 1936, a link the coverage ties to heritage visiting and rural income. The documents give no output, revenue, visitor or household figures, so the scale of the economic gains they describe cannot be checked from this material alone.
Key facts
- Baima County, in Qinghai's Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, is described as the only place in Qinghai that the Red Army's Long March passed through. [ 2 ]
- In July 1936, troops of the Red Second and Fourth Front Armies entered Baima County and rested in the river valley for more than 20 days, according to the feature. [ 2 ]
- The report says the troops gathered wild vegetables and boiled livestock bones for soup rather than take villagers' barley. [ 2 ]
- A barley flour processing plant operates in Wangrou Village, Ya'ertang Township, where drying yards hold black barley awaiting processing. [ 2 ]
- Ya'ertang Township party secretary Dangzhengjie said improved seeds, farm machinery and farmland protection subsidies were promoted and a highland black barley brand built, with products including roasted barley flour, black barley milk tea and biscuits. [ 2 ]
- Baima County also develops Tibetan snow tea and morel mushrooms, the report said, citing the ecology of the Make River forest area. [ 2 ]
- Both outlets ran the feature under the headline “One grain of highland barley, two generations' journey”. [ 1 , 2 ]
Confirmed by several sources
- Baima County is the only place in Qinghai the Red Army's Long March passed through, and troops of the Second and Fourth Front Armies rested there for more than 20 days in July 1936. [ 2 ]
- The Red Army troops in Baima County observed discipline rules and did not take villagers' grain, the report said. [ 2 ]
- Xinhua and China News Service both published a feature headlined “One grain of highland barley, two generations' journey”. [ 1 , 2 ]
Still unclear
- What Xinhua's version of the feature contained beyond its headline. The Xinhua document carries only a title, with no summary or article text, so its additional detail cannot be compared with the China News Service text.
- How much income the barley, snow tea and under-forest industries generate. The report cites no output, revenue, price or household income figures, only qualitative statements from a township official and a company head.
- The scale of the red study tourism and livestream sales the report mentions. Mentioned only in general terms by a single source, with no visitor numbers or sales data.
- Exact dates and the number of troops involved in the 1936 stay in Baima County. The report gives only the month of July 1936 and a duration of more than 20 days, with no specific dates or unit sizes.