A forum on "Red Boat Spirit" is held in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province on June 21. [Photo by Liu Jiali/zjol.com.cn]

"Red Boat Spirit", the origin of China's revolutionary spirit, should be carried forward and implemented earnestly in the new era, an official said at a forum in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province on June 21.

Ge Huijun, chairwoman of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the province's publicity department, made the remark while addressing a forum on promoting "Red Boat Spirit".

Ge said that the spirit, a symbol of the courageous, inventive and pioneering spirit of the early leaders of the CPC (Communist Party of China) is a source of inspiration for people to write a new chapter in the process of developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.

"We should fully understand the great significance of Red Boat Spirit and guard it, promote it and implement it with strong efforts," she said.

The Red Boat refers to the first CPC National Congress that opened on July 23, 1921, when 12 Communist leaders, including Mao Zedong, were forced to flee their initial meeting place in Shanghai's French Concession to escape the French police.

They regrouped later in Jiaxing, a city located just south of Shanghai in northern Zhejiang province, and passed the Party's first political program and resolution on a red boat in the middle of Jiaxing's South Lake.

The story of the Red Boat has also become a part of Zhejiang history and culture, and the promotion of the "Red Boat Spirit" plays an important part in telling stories related to CPC, China and Zhejiang to this day.

This year, Jiaxing also inaugurated a paper collection activity which invited people from around the country to write down their understandings of "Red Boat Spirit". By the opening day of the forum, the organizing committee had received 477 pieces of essays.