The Heavenly River

The story

On 13 June 1959, Yang Gui led a survey team over the mountains into Pingshun County, Shanxi, searching for water for neighbouring Lin County. They found the Zhuozhang River both abundant and higher in elevation than Lin County, and the idea of diverting it into Lin County was born. On 11 February 1960, the Lantern Festival, thirty-seven thousand people of Lin County set out for the Zhuozhang River carrying tools, bedding and cooking stoves, and construction of the Red Flag Canal began. Yang Gui, political commissar of the canal's construction headquarters, recounts the story.