Heroic stories bridge generations, borders

American student Aaron Kyle Schrag-Toso, 36, said the trip brought Snow's experience into sharper focus. Schrag-Toso had portrayed the United States journalist in a university drama earlier this year at Wuhan University, and retracing the route gave him fresh insight into Snow's work.

"Like him, I was witnessing those remarkable events as a foreigner," he said. "I came to understand not only his role in documenting history, but also the stories he worked so hard to share with the world."

Elih Gideon Nuechter, a 23-year-old German student at Wuhan University, said the journey put into perspective the lives and losses behind the history of the Long March.

In Yudu, Jiangxi province, where the Long March began in 1934, he met a 108-year-old woman whose husband, a Red Army soldier, never returned from the march. In Xing'an county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Nuechter heard about a man who spent much of his life searching for where his grandfather had died during the march. He eventually found his grandfather's name recorded at Xing'an's martyrs' memorial park.

"These stories resonate across countries because they speak of love, family, waiting and sacrifice," Nuechter said. "Great stories often begin with ordinary people and their sincere hearts."