New China's first broadcasting station in Ruijin, Jiangxi province, was housed in a simple building with basic equipment. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

　　June 21, CRIENGLISH.com - At some point, most people are inclined to explore their roots. A barren room outfitted with a desk and telephone illuminated by sunlight streaming through a glassless window was the information center of China's first news station, the predecessor of today's sprawling network of Chinese media organizations including China Radio International, Xinhua, and China Central Television.
　　That room is part of a complex of plain-looking buildings in the remote town of Ruijin in Jiangxi Province that formed new China's first government center.
　　In 1931, Mao Zedong established the Chinese Soviet Republic Ruijin, Jiangxi Province. From 1931 to the beginning of the historic Long March in 1934, this cluster of simple buildings surrounded by ponds, grassy fields, and ancient trees was the center of official government activity.
　　Next to a lotus garden is a well that Mao Zedong dug to serve the government complex. Today, tourists line up for a taste of the water that Mao brought to his comrades.
　　A 54-year-old tourist surnamed Nian remembers that one of her first school lessons was about the historic well, but laments that younger generations are not as knowledgeable about the struggles of the revolution.
　　"I think it's necessary to bring young people here and tell them how the Communist party led people to liberate China. Otherwise, they won't know how the new China was established or how the revolutionary martyrs sacrificed for the new China," she said. "They don't know how hard it was to build the new China and they should cherish our new life."
　　On a sunny summer day, the site was busy with visitors, mostly middle-aged tourists looking to the roots of their patriotism, but many brought their younger children and grandchildren for an up-close experience with China's history.
　　Most of the government complex has been reconstructed. After Communists retreated north on the Long March, Kuomintang supporters burned the remnants of Communist rule to the ground. In the 1950s, the government rebuilt the historical site according to its original image. The large, airy rooms accommodated with simple, and sometimes crude, equipment indicates that nothing about its original image has been exaggerated.
　　Now, the government is working to ensure that the original government site is never lost again. A tour guide surnamed Hu outlined some of the steps taken to protect the complex.
　　"It won't fall into disrepair because the government has allocated special money for repair work," she explained. "In historical sites, there is no electricity as a safety measure, and guards patrol at regular intervals. Even if it rains heavily, the guards will check and fix any problems."
　　Ruijin's local government is proud of the city's role in the formation of the new China, so these cautious moves are seen more as a labor of love than as an administrative task. According to a local official surnamed Lin, these sites are not mere tourist spots, but a hub for patriotic education that drew almost 2 million tourists last year.
　　"Because of Ruijin's crucial role in the history of Chinese Communist Party, the central and local governments have spared no effort to protect and promote historical sites by building education centers and sites every year," he said.
　　Although Ruijin's role as an educational site is growing in importance, tourist Nian feels that the site's meaning is weakened for new generations.
　　"People born in the 1950s like me are sentimental about this period of time, while younger generations know little about it," she says.
　　In the old government complex, visitors can peer into the petite construction that housed new China's first treasury, which employed exactly three people. In the old congressional meeting hall, delegates sat together on narrow wooden benches. The simplicity of the Communist government's origins is a stark reminder of the country's ideals.
　　A modernizing China does not have to bury its past. An old Chinese proverb says, "When you drink the water, remember the person who dug the well." You can find the well that Mao dug on the site of new China's original government complex, along with buildings where the first patriotic officials created today's China.