Driving a Red-tourism revolution

A self-driving tour from Changsha to Guidong county, Hunan province. [Photo/China Daily]

Changsha resident Liu Dan is one of 20 Chinese out of 2,600 applicants to win a free 12-day tour from China to Russia.

It will be the 40-year-old's first visit to the country.

She wants to visit locations with historical significance to the Chinese revolution.

"Those sites remind me of olden times," she says.

The tour is organized by China's national Red-tourism coordination office and the Hunan tourism bureau. It will set off from Hunan province's Shaoshan on June 29 and end in Russia's Ulyanovsk - the respective hometowns of Mao Zedong and Vladimir Lenin.

"We'll take self-driving tours across Hunan, Hubei, Henan and Hebei provinces to Beijing before flying to Moscow," says Chen Yong, executive president of the Hunan self-driving tour association.

Participants will continue to drive around Ulyanovsk after landing, Chen adds.

In addition to revolutionary sites, including Vladimir Lenin's former residence, the Chinese group will explore Russia's culture and natural landscapes in Moscow, Kazan and St. Petersburg.

The tour is part of a Red tourism exchange program between China and Russia.

It aims to commemorate victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and World War II, Chen says.