On 16 July 1966, a great Crossing-the-Yangzi event was organized in Wuhan to commemorate the event. Mao showed up to stress his support for this exercise and plopped down from his boat to float downstreams for over an hour. During his dip, he exchanged jokes with the masses and taught a woman how to perform the backstroke swim. The happening was covered extensively by the Chinese mass media. It was widely interpreted as a demonstration that Mao, although residing in Shanghai, far removed from the locus of power (Beijing), still was physically fit and able to continue to lead China on its revolutionary course. This played a major role in his bid to regain power during the Cultural Revolution.

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During the 1911 Revolution, Mao enlisted as a soldier in a local regiment in Hunan, which fought on the side of the revolutionaries. Once the Qing Dynasty had been effectively toppled, Mao left the army and returned to school.

After graduating from the First Provincial Normal School of Hunan in 1918, Mao traveled with Professor Yang Changji, his high school teacher and future father-in-law, to Beijing during the May Fourth Movement in 1919.

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