A former Bradford University PhD student has become the first person outside China to retrace the route of Mao Zedong's famous Long March in the mid-1930s.

The journey eventually led to the communist revolution of 1949.

But after more than a year on the road, Ed Jocelyn discovered that the 4,000-mile journey was more than 2,000 miles shorter than the communists had always claimed.

He also discovered a 68-year-old woman believed to be Mao's long-lost daughter.

Dr Jocelyn, 35, took 384 days to complete the arduous trek, two weeks longer than Mao's peasant army.

Besieged communist troops marched out of Jiangxi Province in October 1934. By the time the soldiers reached Yanan more than a year later, just 8,000 were left.

Accompanied by his friend Andy McEwan, 37, the pair were arrested by suspicious local police four times and bitten by dogs.

Dr Jocelyn, who made a video documentary of the journey, is publishing a Chinese language account of the epic march in the autumn.

Speaking from China, where he has lived for the past seven years, Dr Jocelyn said: "We wanted to research the history of the Long March through primary sources, witnesses and participants still live along the route.

"No one from outside China had ever done it and few thought it could even be done. Either it was too physically demanding and dangerous or the authorities would not permit it.

"Most of the places we travelled through had not seen foreigners before, at least not in living memory."

During the gruelling journey, Dr Jocelyn came across Xiong Huazhi, believed to be the dictator's daughter. Mao's wife He Zizhen gave birth during the communist escape. The child was given away to peasants and never seen again.

Her DNA is to be compared with Mao's only known surviving child Li Min, who lives in Beijing.

During his time at Bradford University Dr Jocelyn studied Russian and French before embarking on a doctor of philosophy degree.

After leaving the city in 1997, China called.

Dr Jocelyn said: "The Long March itself is a thrilling and compelling tale. It's central to the self-image of modern China as the D-Day landings were to England, although perhaps Dunkirk would be a better analogy.

"We were also attracted by the challenge and the sense of discovery and to see something and know something of China that others had never seen."

Now based in Beijing with just three cats for company, Dr Jocelyn said: "I have only ever met one person from Bradford in seven years in Beijing and he was head chef at a five-star hotel.

"No Chinese person I have ever met has heard of the city."