The Olympic torch started its Loess Plateau trip from Yan'an yesterday.

It was taken to the peak of a mountain on which stands a pagoda¹ built during the Tang Dynasty. It then crossed the Yanhe River to the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, a legendary² ancestor of the Chinese people.

Local farmers, like Niu Ying, from nearby Ansai county, arrived with their drums, trumpets³ and costumes to cheer on the relay. The county is known for its drum performances and the folk dance yangge.

"We are glad to host the torch relay in our hometown," Niu said. "We hope people from across the world will come to know that Yan'an, apart from its revolutionary past, is also the land that has nurtured⁴ and generated a Chinese culture that dates back 5,000 years."

Yan'an, once a small, sleepy town, would have remained in obscurity had it not been for some notable figures.

The city, dubbed⁵ the "Cradle of New China", was a revolutionary base where once lived Chinese legendary figures such as Mao Zedong, Zhu De and Zhou Enlai.

In 1936, it became the final destination of the Long March, a journey of more than 25,000 li or 17,500 km, made by the Chinese Red Army. For 13 years, until the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Communist Party of China (CPC) headquarters and its army were stationed in the city.

Liu Tianyou, a 93-year-old Red Army veteran who joined the Long March, led off the torch relay at Date Garden, where the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee used to be.

The relay concluded at the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor about 125 km from downtown Yan'an.