Red Flag Canal

We stand before the 'Hong-qi-qu', or the Red Flag Canal, an extraordinary water project that is often called the 'Man-made River in the Sky'. Located in the rugged Tai-hang Mountains of Henan Province, this canal system was built…

Our journey begins at the headwaters of the main canal, where water is diverted from the Zhang River. The main canal itself is 70.6 kilometers long, and its design is a masterpiece of precision engineering. …

One of the most famous sections of the canal is the 'Qing-nian-dong', or Youth Tunnel. This 600-meter-long tunnel was carved through a particularly stubborn section of the mountain. …

In many places, the main canal is not a tunnel or a trench, but is literally carved into the face of vertical cliffs. These 'hanging' sections are the most visually spectacular and dangerous parts of the project. …

To maintain the necessary gravity flow across the deep valleys and ravines of the Taihang range, engineers had to build numerous aqueducts. There are 24 major aqueducts in the Red Flag Canal system, some of which are massive…

To understand the technical and human details of this 'miracle', a visit to the Red Flag Canal Museum is essential. The museum houses a vast collection of artifacts from the construction era: the worn-out hammers and chisels, the…

The final stage of the main canal involves a series of distribution gates and spillways that channel the water into the complex network of branch canals and culverts. There are around 12,000 such supporting structures in the…

As we conclude our tour of the Red Flag Canal, we look up at the towering cliffs of the Taihang Mountains, now permanently marked by the line of the water. We have seen the incredible precision of the gravity flow, the bravery of…