20 October 1935: Mao’s Long March ends

Almost exactly a year after setting off, Mao Zedong and his army of communists arrived at the foot of the Great Wall of China on this day in 1935.

Mao Zedong on what is thought to be the Long March
Mao Zedong on his long...er... ride
(Image credit: © Fototeca Gilardi/Getty Images)

By 1934, the Chinese civil war had been going for seven years. The Nationalists of Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang had the upper hand, and were besieging Communist enclaves. Holed up in one, the Jianxi soviet, was Mao Zedong.

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Ben Judge

Ben studied modern languages at London University's Queen Mary College. After dabbling unhappily in local government finance for a while, he went to work for The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. The launch of the paper's website, scotsman.com, in the early years of the dotcom craze, saw Ben move online to manage the Business and Motors channels before becoming deputy editor with responsibility for all aspects of online production for The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News websites, along with the papers' Edinburgh Festivals website.

Ben joined MoneyWeek as website editor in 2008, just as the Great Financial Crisis was brewing. He has written extensively for the website and magazine, with a particular emphasis on alternative finance and fintech, including blockchain and bitcoin. 

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