Retracing the Burma Road in honor of the Chinese Expeditionary Force
After 5 years of preparation, Thin & High, in cooperation with the China Federation of Patriotic Projects and the Yunnan Flying Tigers Research Institute, successfully organized an 8-day expedition in May 2010 to retrace the path taken by the Chinese Expeditionary Force to Burma during WWII.
In 1942, more than 100,000 young men joined the Chinese Expeditionary Force to assist the Allied Forces in their fight against the Japanese occupation in Burma. Their gallant efforts together with the arduous
airlifts over the Hump and the valiant contributions of the Flying Tigers eventually brought victory against the Japanese invasion in Asia, albeit with the heavy loss of more than 60,000 brave Chinese Expeditionary Force soldiers.
To commemorate these significant historical events, an 8-day expedition to retrace the path traveled by the Chinese Expeditionary Force to Burma was undertaken from May 20 to May 27, 2010. The 80+ participants of the May 20th kick-off ceremony in Kunming included some of the Expeditionary Force veterans, most of whom were in their 90s; click here to read a report by Radio Free Asia.
The 21 members of our expedition included descendants of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and WWII soldiers as well as some patriotic lawyer, doctor, nurse, university professor and student, writers and reporters. Our 8-day 3000-kilometer journey covered the route taken by the Expeditionary Force to Burma and the path of their triumphant return. We visited battlefields, cemeteries, museums, Flying Tiger airfields and the old Hump Airport as well as several elderly Expeditionary Force veterans. On the last day of the expedition, we erected a monument to commemorate this activity on Chang Chun Mountain, which was a burial ground for Chinese and foreign nationals during WWII. We were sad to find that the few surviving Expeditionary Force members were living in poverty, but we are proud that our endeavor to honor the Chinese Expeditionary Force resulted in the first benefit payment of ¥3,000 in September 2010 by the Chinese government to every WWII veteran in rural China.
Click on the following links to watch, listen and read the extensive reports of our memorable expedition:
- A slide show (if you use Internet Explorer and it opens the file as individual slides, please press F5 to start the audible presentation)
- Audio interviews of the participants by Radio Free Asia – part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 and part 6
- Media reports
- Cheng Yong’s journal
- Li DeMing’s blog from May 22 to June 5, 2010.