Tourists watch an artisan making dough figurines at a revolutionary museum in Yinan county in Linyi during the recent Dragon Boat Festival. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Wang's nursery was a home to over 80 children during the war, with the youngest being 3 days old and the eldest around 7 or 8, according to the town officials.

During China's War of Liberation in the late 1940s, six women from Mengyin county in the Yimeng Mountain area, did all they could to support the army off the battlefield. They were named the Six Sisters of Yimeng. They did the cooking, made shoes by hand and washed clothes for soldiers. They also cared the wounded and helped transport provisions and ammunition.

"Their deeds exemplified the Yimeng spirit. That spirit of hard work, selflessness and dedication will never be outdated," says Dong.

To make it easier for tourists to travel between the revolutionary sites, the county has built a 59-kilometer highway which was put into service in 2013. Connecting 26 villages in the mountainous area with the outside world, the road has also become an artery for rural development.

Villagers in Sanshangou village of the county's Tongjing town were once isolated by their location deep in the mountains. In the 1980s, a project by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was abandoned because there were no roads that reached the village.

A 59-kilometer highway connects 26 villages in the Yimeng mountainous area of Shandong province with the outside world. The road has become an artery for rural development, and has been instrumental in transporting villagers out of poverty. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The highway has been instrumental in transporting villagers out of poverty.

"Before, we sold ginger by carrying the crop to market, but the money we earned could only cover the cost of some salt and oil. Now, however, our ginger is being transported all over the country. Buyers now come to our village to purchase our ginger," says Sun Hongwang, a villager from Sanshangou, adding the highway also brings tourists to the village to experience rural life.

Sanshangou was named as a city-level demonstration village of rural tourism in 2016.

"Inspired by the Yimeng spirit, we are creating a much better life," says Sun.