"The Long March for Education" is the first walkathon of its size and kind in China and took place from 2004 carrying over into 2005. The main purpose of this event was raise awareness in China and overseas about the continuing need for the improvement of basic education in China's mountainous western areas. The march hoped to gain donations and support for the improvement of the educational environment in this region of China. The Long March for Education coincided with the 70th anniversary of the legendary Long March by the Chinese Red Army. The march began in Jiangxi Province and ended in Shaanxi Province. It retraces the same historical route the Red Army took in its Long March, trekking through 10 provinces and 101 counties and cities. The target for this event was to raise RMB20.2 million and to build 101 Sowers’ & Hope Primary Schools along the route. The entire journey took ten months to complete, covering a distance of 8,038 km. It was demanding for participants both in terms of time and effort, as this is the longest and most challenging charity walk ever.

This monumental event was the joint effort of two organizations, Sowers Action and the China Youth Development Fund. Along the way, each provincial youth development fund joined in to be a local organizer for the walkathon.
Three groups of walkers took part in the march: Full Journey, Relay Journey and Section Journey. The Full Journey group was comprised of twenty-one volunteers. Among them 16 are from Hong Kong and 5 are from China's mainland. The average age of the walkers is over 50, with the eldest being 70 and the youngest being 26. Among these courageous walkers, 5 of whom are women, some had left their current jobs while others had put off business ventures, some are retired workers, and others are full time mothers and grandmothers. These everyday people set out on an undertaking that is anything but ordinary. Each of them paid RMB70,000 to participate in the walk and shouldered the responsibility of raising at least RMB80,000 in donations.

To attract more participants, the host organizations broke the march route into 11 sections. Any individual could take part in any of the 11 sections. It would take 5 to 8 days to complete a section, a distance of anywhere between 90 and 120 km. Each section journey walker had been asked to raise a minimum of RMB3,000 in donations.

To increase the reach of this event, the organizers joined with Enlightenment Media to create the “Star Walk” program, in which hundreds of actors and sports stars participated. The first “Star Walk” team took part in the opening ceremony and included: Hong Kong actor Lin Jidong; mainland cross-talk artist Jiang Kun; mainland actress Zhao Wei ; and mainland singer Sha Baoliang. A number of stars were also invited to be “Long March for Education Ambassadors”, including CCTV hostess Ni Ping, “bright-eyed” Su Mingjuan, and top actors and actress Guan Yonghe, Lin Jiadong, and Zhang Jiahui.

The business community in China and abroad gave generous attention and support to the Long March for Education. Print-Rite Holdings Ltd. sponsored the Jiangxi Section; Nokia (China) donated mobile phones to the full-journey walkers; the FIYTA (Shenzhen) Group donated watches to the full-journey walkers; and Jeanswest ( Hong Kong) International Company Ltd. sponsored the opening ceremony.