The March to Heaven, 1950: An Account of a Thousand Women Soldiers Trekking to Tibet (Revised Edition)

This book is a work of long-form documentary literature about more than a thousand women soldiers in the People’s Liberation Army who accompanied the forces advancing into Tibet in the 1950s. It recounts how they overcame countless hardships and made an enormous contribution to the peaceful liberation of Tibet. The book consists of two parts: “Marching on the Brink of Death” and “A Moving Bond Between Han and Tibetan People.” The first part describes how the women, eager to serve their country, eagerly volunteered to join the forces entering Tibet. Amid harsh natural conditions such as snow-capped mountains, icy rivers, and marshes, and difficulties including shortages of supplies, inadequate clothing and food, and altitude sickness, they upheld the revolutionary spirit of fearing neither hardship nor death, overcame physical and psychological challenges, and ultimately completed their mission to advance into Tibet. The second part describes how the women soldiers worked tirelessly to build unity with the Tibetan people amid hostile clamor in Tibet, making major contributions to its development and to safeguarding the unity of the motherland.