China is preparing to mark 60 years of communist rule, with a lavish military parade in Beijing and celebrations across the country for Thursday's anniversary.

Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the foundation of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, after a bitter civil war fought over more than 20 years.

One of the key episodes of the war was the so-called Long March, when Mao led his forces on a strategic military retreat through harsh terrain to evade the nationalist Kuomintang army.

In the first of our series examining communist China at 60, Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan travels to China's southeastern province of Jiangxi, where the Long March began.