The late leader Mao Zedong's birthplace in Shaoshan, Hunan Province was tranquil Thursday as the nation prepared to mark Friday's 110th anniversary of the birth of the founder of the People's Republic of China.

But appearances can be deceptive, as Shaoshan railway station has been seeing an increase in passengers arriving from all over the country, coming to visit the late leader's birth place.

Mao (December 26, 1893 - September 10, 1976) was the founder of the Communist Party of China and led the nation's first generation of leaders after the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

"Many people are now showing no interest in learning more about the great man,'' said 65-year-old He Bingyu, a retired worker from the station.

"The 21-kilometer-long railway quickly become one of the busiest of its kind in China after it was completed in 1967. The trains were always crowded with visitors to the residence,'' he recalled. "As a result, one more train had to be added to the original two to share the load.''

A similar situation occurred at the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall on Tian'anmen Square in Beijing.

An official at the hall refuted reports that the influence of Mao among young Chinese has largely diminished and almost all visitors to the hall are about or above middle age.

"There are lots of young people, not necessarily organized by their schools, visiting the hall to show their respect to the great man, who led the country from war and poverty to independence and prosperity," he said.

Twenty-year-old Chen Di from southwest China's Chongqing echoed the official's words.

Though no adorer of Mao, like her father and grandfather, Chen has found occasions to turn to Mao's famous "little red book.''

A computer science student at the University of Wales in Britain, Chen said Mao's instruction to "study hard and make progress every day'' was worth following.

Acknowledging that she had never memorized Mao's quotations, Chen said that Mao's teachings, still inscribed on a few school walls in China today, were impressed in her mind as a schoolgirl.

"As a student from China, I hope my efforts can help win me respect from foreign teachers and schoolmates,'' she said. "This quotation of Mao's is just what I need now. I feel encouraged every time I think of it.''

In the 1960s and 70s, China witnessed large-scale admiration for Mao, which sociologist Yu Ping interpreted as god-like worship.

"Mao's teachings were printed into handy, little red pamphlets for the whole country to study and even to learn by heart," he said.

Mao: Influence lives on

With a circulation of approximately 5 billion copies in different languages, the little red pamphlets, called the Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, were an international best seller in the 1960s.

Yu believed Mao's military, philosophical and literary teachings still influence China.

For example, many foreigners have learned through their personal experience of the influence of Mao on modern China's economic and social development.

Gerhard Wahl, a German maglev expert, said China's current economic success was an invaluable legacy from Chairman Mao and other late Chinese leaders.

Wahl, a 64-year-old expert from Germany's Siemens AG Company, has served as the chief German coordinator for the construction of the maglev line in Shanghai, which is soon to go into operation following a one-year trial.

"I heard of Mao when I was a middle school student, but I know more about Mao and China during my three years of work in China,'' Wahl said.

Wahl said that he knows little about Mao's political thought but he regarded Mao as a man of "integrity, strong will and fearless of difficulties.''

He valued Mao's dauntless spirit that is critically important for a nation, saying that the spirit could not be discarded and ignored.

(China Daily December 26, 2003)