YAN'AN, Jan. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- This Spring Festival is special for the people in China's revolutionary base Yan'an in northwest China's Shaanxi Province as Chinese President Hu Jintao joined them in celebrating the Spring Festival from Jan. 27 to 29.

    On Sunday morning, or the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, Hu Jintao inspected the power supply bureau in Yan'an. Extending Spring Festival greetings to all the workers on duty, Hu said that electricity supply during the Spring Festival should be more adequate than usual.

    The President asked the soldiers to remember him to their families in terms of season greetings when he inspected the local armed police.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (3rd R), who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission, talks with armed police in Yan'an, a revolutionary base in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. President Hu paid New Year visits to people at revolutionary base to extend Spring Festival greetings to them during Jan. 27 to 29. (Xinhua Photo)

    Sun Zhensheng, a soldier with the local armed police who was on duty, was excited and thanked Hu on the phone when he received thePresident's call from 50 kilometers away.

    Pleased to see the young trees on the hillsides in the Yanhewan Town of Ansai County, which was chosen to be the trial place to replant trees on the cultivated land in an effort to improve the environment, Hu told the local officials:"We should persevere in our efforts to plant more trees here and make the hills in Yan'an more green and the people here more affluent."

    Hu asked the local government to render more help to the farmers in capital and technology when he inspected ecological vegetable fields, and encouraged the firms there to promote innovation when he inspected a pharmaceutical company.

    The President also visited some historical sites of the Chinese revolution, including former residence of Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other former revolutionists.

Hu pays New Year visits to people in Yan'an

    YAN'AN, Jan. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- As the Spring Festival, Chinese lunar New Year, is drawing near, President Hu Jintao visited the people in the revolutionary base of Yan'an, in northwest China's Shanxi Province, to extend Spring Festival greetings to them.

    On Saturday morning, Hu visited the people in Hougoumen Village of Ansai County. He watched the performance of the villagers and joined them in dancing "yangge", a popular rural folk dance especially in northern China.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (R), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission, expresses his New Year greetings to local people in Hougoumen Village of Yanhewan Town in Ansai County. (Xinhua Photo)

    Later, Hu called on 51-year-old farmer, Kang Haifa, at his home. He chatted with Kang's family in their cave dwelling and joined them in making "niangao", a kind of glutinous rice cake widely eaten by Chinese during the lunar New Year period.

    Enjoying fried "niangao" with the family-made rice wine, Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, told the Kang's that he was glad to see the villagers are living a good life.

    The goal of building a new socialist countryside in China is to ensure the farmers become rich more quickly, so that festival food such as "niangao" will become their daily diet, and their standards of living will become better year by year, said the president, who began the visit to Yan'an on Friday.

    Yan'an served as the CPC headquarters during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation in the late 1930s and 1940s.

    Accompanied by central and provincial officials, Hu went to the Yan'an Bayi Old Folks' Home to extend New Year's greetings to veterans of the Red Army and the Eight Route Army Friday morning.

    Shaking hands with the president, 90-year-old Liu Tianyou, who came to Yan'an in 1937 with the Red Army, the final destination of the Long March, told Hu that she was taken good care of at the Old Folks' Home. Hu was pleased to see telephone, TV and heating facilities in Liu's room.

    Talking with the veterans, Hu said, "In those years, you made great contribution to the victory of the revolution, overcoming hardships and fighting bravely under the leadership of Chairman Mao and the Party. The Party and the people will never forget your merits and achievements in the revolutionary history."

    "Despite the different times, we will continue to carry forward the fine tradition of the Red Army and Eighth Route Army and make the utmost efforts in building our country into a better one," said Hu. Enditem