BEIJING - A Chinese farmer has spent 219 days and all his savings retracing the steps of communist founding father Mao Zedong's forces in their famous 1934-35 long march, AFP quoted state media as saying Monday.

Shi Guoli, a 52-year-old native of northeastern Jilin Province, walked more than 10,000 kilometers (6,250 miles) by a circuitous route from eastern China to its remote northwest, Xinhua news agency said.

"When I was a kid, I always wanted to see for myself the high mountains (Mao's forces) climbed and the vast grasslands they traveled through," Shi said, explaining why he did it.

The long march began when the communists were forced by ruling nationalist forces to leave their base in Jiangxi Province, and only ended when they found a secure home in Shaanxi Province a year later.

Mao's troops were decimated as they traveled through areas dominated by nationalists or encountered unfriendly locals.

By comparison, Shi's hassles were relatively minor, including, according to Xinhua, problems with exotic diets and unintelligible dialects.