At Peking University's Weiming lakeside, students can be seen resting on chairs, walking around the lake or taking photographs. Few are aware of a tomb in the woods nearby.

The tomb is the final resting place of Edgar Snow, an American journalist and author of "Red Star over China", the 1930s book that introduced the Communist Party of China (CPC) to the world.

"I knew Snow wrote a book but I did not know his tomb was here," said law freshman Cao Fengyu.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the start of the Long March, a forced expedition that eventually laid an important foundation for the Communist victory in the civil war.

The 12,500-km trek and the difficult terrain, which covered provinces and regions in Fujian; Gansu; Guangdong; Guangxi; Guizhou; Hunan; Jiangxi; Ningxia; Sichuan; Shaanxi; and Yunnan, was hard on the troops. From October 1934 to October 1936, more than three quarters of the Red Army's men had died or were reported missing.

Born in 1905, Snow came to China in 1928. From 1935, he taught journalism at Peking University where he met many students who would go on to play major roles in the revolution. Influenced by his interactions with these young thinkers, Snow attended a meeting at the CPC revolutionary base in Shaanxi in 1936, which had been arranged by the wife of KMT founder Sun Yat-sen, Soong Ching-ling, where he met CPC leaders such as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.

When the KMT trumpeted its defeat of the CPC's army, Snow collected first-hand accounts on the Long March, as well as on the work and life style of Communists in Shaanxi. He published "Red Star over China" the following year, astonishing the world.

"This book was significant because it recorded Soviet power in China thoroughly and systematically, including the related political views and diplomatic strategies," said Sun Hua, deputy director and secretary general of Peking University's China Center for Edgar Snow Studies (CCESS).

"When the whole world had forgotten us, Snow came to see us and told the world what had happened. We will remember Snow's great help to China forever," Chairman Mao said during an interview with a German journalist in 1938.

In response to the book, more than 40,000 youths headed to Shaanxi during the Anti-Japanese War Period from 1937 to 1945, calling on the two parties to end civil war and to work together to resist invasion. Many of these youths were well-educated and they injected strength into the Chinese Red Army after the Long March, according to Sun.

Many Westerners were introduced to the party through his book. Norman Bethune, a Canadian doctor known for his efforts to save the lives of Chinese soldiers during World War II, came to China after reading Snow's book. It is still considered a must-read on China and the CPC in the western world even now, Sun said.

Snow only left China when the KMT revoked his press card. He died in 1972 in Switzerland and, as per his wishes, some of his ashes were buried at Peking University.

To commemorate the contribution foreigners, such as Snow, played in the revolution, China established a special research institution in 1984 called the China Society for People's Friendship Studies. The CCESS was established in 1993, and it co-founded a biennial symposium on Snow studies with the US-based Edgar Snow Memorial Foundation. The symposium has become an important platform for Sino-US cultural exchange.

"The legacy Snow left behind has benefited a lot of people for decades," Sun said.