XISHUI, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Chishui River winds through the mountains, with its waters murmuring as they flow past Lintan Village in Xishui County of southwest China's Guizhou Province.
Beside the former site of a Party Branch set by the Red Army in Lintan Village, a leafy pomelo tree stands quietly. Locals call it the "Red Army Pomelo."
For 77-year-old Song Guangping, the tree carries a lifelong memory. Standing before the tree near his old home, he often recalls the afternoon when his father, Song Jiatong, brought back the pomelo seedlings. To him, it is more than a tree. It is a living link between the Long March, the deep bond between the Red Army and the people, and a village's journey from poverty to revitalization.
Song Jiatong arrived in Guizhou with the Central Red Army during the Long March, the historic military maneuver in modern Chinese history. He was seriously wounded during the Four Crossings of the Chishui River and was rescued by local villagers.
After recovering, he chose to stay in Lintan, where he married and raised a family. In the early 1980s, Song Jiatong returned to his hometown of Ningdu, east China's Jiangxi Province, and brought back several honey pomelo seedlings. Four were planted, but only one survived.
No one has imagined that the single surviving seedling would take root by the Chishui River, bloom, and bear fruit, or that through villagers' grafting, it would eventually grow into more than 300 mu (20 hectares) of pomelo groves along the river valley.
"My father always kept the people in his heart," Song Guangping said. "Bringing the pomelo seedlings to Lintan was his way of helping the villagers live a better life."
Because the tree embodies the memory of unity between the Red Army soldiers and the people, locals affectionately call it the "Red Army Pomelo."
It soon became the village's "fruit of prosperity." From the 1980s into the early 2000s, more than 100 households in Lintan grew the fruit. At that time, they were the only pomelo growers for miles around. One pomelo sold for 5 yuan (about 0.75 U.S. dollars), and a single tree could produce two or three hundred fruits, earning a family several thousand yuan.
The income helped cover school fees for children across the village. Over the years, more than 100 students from Lintan went on to college.
The influence of the "Red Army Pomelo" has spread beyond Lintan. Villagers in Qinggangpo Village of Xishui County also transplanted and grafted trees from the original pomelo, introduced more varieties, and established a pomelo industry demonstration base.
"Qinggangpo Village is known for the Battle of Qinggangpo during the Long March," said Yi Song, Party secretary of the village. "We receive 200,000 visitors a year, and the tourism has been boosting our fruit farming. Since we began developing the pomelo industry, we have planted 1,800 mu (120 hectares) of honey pomelo, and total output is expected to reach 1.2 million yuan (about 180,000 U.S. dollars) this year."
From a single pomelo seedling to the industry of pomelo planting, the red legacy has never left this land. It has simply taken on a new form that is rooted in the soil and bringing sweetness to everyday life.■
