Known as “the Great Wall of Water”, the Red Flag Canal is a water project built by the people of Linzhou, Henan Province from the 1960s to 1970s. It was built on the side of cliffs of the Taihang Mountain to divert water from Zhanghe River to the Linzhou County.
The Red Flag Canal
The construction of the Red Flag Canal commenced in February 1960. A total of 300,000 people of Linzhou were mobilized to undertake the engineering work on the top of the Taihang Mountain under extremely harsh conditions for ten years. The industrious Linzhou people leveled 1,250 hilltops, erected 151 aqueducts, dug 211 tunnels, built 12,408 hydraulic structures, and excavated 22.25 million m3 of earth and rock, accomplishing a feat of water engineering.
The Construction Site
Taking the Zhuozhang River as its source of water, the Red Flag Canal extends 1,500 km in length. The main canal wall is 4.3 m high, 8 m wide and 70.6 km long. A total of 45 small hydropower stations were built by taking advantage of the high water head of the Red Flag Canal. Thanks to its multiple functions of water diversion, storage, lifting, drainage, and power generation, the Canal has irrigated a large agriculture area and stood out as a scenic spot. The construction of the Canal not only ended the miserable history of “nine drought years out of ten and water as expensive as oil” in the Linzhou County, but also fundamentally improved people’s living conditions. The people of Linzhou affectionately call the Red Flag Canal “the Canal of life” and “the Canal of happiness”.
The Red Flag Canal
The Red Flag Canal has become a glorious banner of water engineering in China. Former Premier Zhou Enlai once proudly told foreign guests: “there are two wonders in the newly founded People’s Republic of China. One is the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and the other is the Red Flag Canal in Linzhou”. The Canal is deemed by many visitors as a magnificent achievement, and was recognized as a national key cultural heritage protection site by the State Council in 2006. Nowadays, the influence of the Canal is far beyond a water project. The spirit of “self-reliance, hard work, solidarity, cooperation and selfless devotion”, as embodied by Linzhou people in building the Red Flag Canal, has become an epitome of the Chinese psyche.
