红旗渠

红旗渠

红旗渠位于河南省安阳市林州市，是20世纪60年代林县（今林州市）人民为了解决千百年来干旱缺水的难题，在太行山悬崖峭壁上修建的引漳入林的水利工程。红旗渠全长1500千米，参与修建人数近10万，耗时近10年（1960—1969）。该工程共削平了1250座山头，架设151座渡槽，开凿211个隧洞，修建各种建筑物12408座，挖砌土石达2225万立方米。如把这些土石垒筑成高2米、宽3米的墙，可纵贯祖国南北，把广州与哈尔滨连接起来。

红旗渠的建成彻底改善了林县人民靠天等雨的恶劣生存环境，结束了林县十年九旱、水贵如油的苦难历史，红旗渠被当地人民称为“生命渠” “幸福渠”，也被誉为“人工天河”“新中国奇迹”“世界水利第八大奇迹”。在当时三年自然灾害和国家经济困难的大背景下，林县人民以愚公移山精神，自带工具，自备口粮，风餐露宿，靠着“一锤、一钎、一双手”，创造出太行山上的人间奇迹，孕育了“自力更生，艰苦创业，团结协作，无私奉献”的红旗渠精神。

改革开放以来，林州人民不断赋予红旗渠精神新的内涵，将中华民族艰苦奋斗的传统美德与时代精神结合起来，谱写了气壮山河的“战太行、出太行、富太行”创业三部曲，实现了林州由山区贫困县向现代化新兴城市、生态旅游城市的跨越。

Hongqi Canal

The Hongqi Canal is a water conservancy project in Linzhou, Anyang of Henan Province. From 1960 to 1969, to solve the water shortage that had troubled the locality for hundreds of years, the people of Linxian County (present-day Linzhou) spent nearly 10 years digging a 1,500-kilometer-long canal on the cliffs of the Taihang Mountains. About 100,000 people joined the project: They flattened 1,250 hills, erected 151 aqueducts, dug through 211 tunnels, built 12,408 structures of various kinds, and used 22.25 million cubic meters of earth and stone.

The Hongqi Canal improved the Linxian people's living environment and ended their long history of dire water scarcity due to frequent drought. The canal was therefore called by the locals a "canal of life" and "canal of happiness" and also reputed as a "man-made heavenly river," a "miracle of China," and the "eighth wonder in the world history of water conservancy projects." It was built at a time when China suffered from natural disasters over three consecutive years and great economic difficulties, but the Linxian people, in the spirit of the mountain-moving Yu Gong, worked a wonder on the Taihang Mountains against unimaginable obstacles just with hammers, drill rods, and their hands. The self-reliance, endurance, unity, cooperation, and selfless dedication they displayed during this large-scale project have given birth to the spirit of the Hongqi Canal.

Since the reform and opening up began in the late 1970s, the local people have injected new elements into this spirit, combining the Chinese nation's traditional virtue of hard work with the realities of the new era. Working in this spirit, they have turned Linzhou from an impoverished mountainous county into a modern place supported by eco-tourism.