The town of YAN’AN, set deep ill the bleakly attractive dry loess hills of northern Shaanxi, bas very little in common with the other cities of this province. By appearance and temperament it belongs with the high industrial cities of Shanxi rather than the ancient capitals of the Yellow River plain; how- ever, the only easy way to get here is on the train or bus from Xl’an, 250kin to the south. The town is a quiet backwater, and as you walk its dour streets it’s hard to imagine that, as the headquarters of the Comnmnist Party in the 1930s and early 1940s, this was once one of China’s most popular tourist spots, a ma]or revolutionary pilgrimage site second only to Mao’s birthplace at Shaoshan (see p.562). In the changed political climate, with enthusiasm for the Party waning (and no longer compulsory), it’s now hardly different from any other northern town, rarely visited except by groups of PLA soldiers and the odd ideologue.

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