When we visited Yan’an in 2002, the citizens complained that Mao never went back to see them while Zhou Enlai and his wife Deng Yingchao did. It is said that Zhou bowed to the Yan’anites expressing shame that so many years after the revolution, people there were actually poorer. He then approved funds to build the first bridge across the Yan River for the convenience of the people. Later, students who were sent down to Yan’an raised funds to build another bridge across the Yan River and named it Enlai Bridge.
Lily Lee <l.lee@sydney.edu.au>