Red Flag Canal: A shared legacy of resilience and cooperation

In the early 1960s, nestled at the foot of the Taihang Mountains, the people of Linxian county, now Linzhou city, in Henan province faced a relentless struggle against water scarcity. Determined to end this plight, a bold vision was conceived — to carve a life-giving canal through the sheer cliffs in order to channel water from the Zhuozhang River in neighboring Shanxi province.

Among the many who took up this monumental task was the family of Zhang Maijiang. At 77, Zhang recalls a time when the people of present-day Linzhou lived in dire poverty, often forced to leave their homes in search of sustenance. His father, a demolition squad leader, was a casualty of the canal-building project, killed by a falling rock while ensuring his fellow workers' safety.

In the wake of his father's death, Zhang's mother sent him to the canal construction site with a solemn directive: not to return until the canal was completed. At just 13, Zhang became the youngest laborer on the project site, continuing his father's unfinished work on the dangerous cliffside sections of the main canal in Shanxi's Pingshun county.