The founder of Hongqi Canal is Yang Gui.
Yang Guizeng presided over the construction of the Hongqi Canal and was known as the "chief architect" of the Hongqi Canal.
Hongqi Canal, located in Linzhou City, Anyang, Henan Province, is a national AAAAA tourist attraction and a national key cultural relics protection unit. It is known as the "Eighth Wonder of the World". The construction of the Red Flag Canal started in 1960. The hard-working and brave 300,000 Linzhou people worked hard for 10 years and built the 1,500-kilometer-long Red Flag Canal on the cliffs of the Taihang Mountains with only a hammer, a shovel, and two hands. It is called the "artificial Tianhe".
The construction of the Red Flag Canal gave birth to the Red Flag Canal spirit of "self-reliance, hard work, unity and cooperation, and selfless dedication", which is a symbol of the national spirit.
Yang Gui, the founder of the artificial Tianhe Red Flag Canal
Yang Gui was appointed Secretary of the Lin County Party Committee in April 1954 at the age of 26. At that time, he made up his mind that no matter how difficult it was, he had to change the poor and backward appearance of Lin County. He worked in Lin County for 21 years. Lin County is located in the north of Henan, close to the junction of Shanxi and Hebei provinces. It is a barren mountainous area with high mountains and steep slopes, thin soil and thick rocks, a severe lack of water sources, and nine droughts in ten years. It covers an area of ??2046 square kilometers, half of which is barren mountains.
He led the people of Lin County and after several years built the artificial Tianhe - Hongqi Canal, creating the great Hongqi Canal spirit. The Hongqi Canal project started in February 1960. Each of the cadres and migrant workers who participated in the construction of the canal had only 0.5 kilograms of raw grain and 1.5 kilograms of vegetables per day. Under difficult construction conditions, they fought hard on the cliffs of Taihang Mountain and among the dangerous shoals and canyons. In the middle, I relied on the spirit of self-reliance and hard work. I had no money or materials to raise by myself, and I didn’t know the skills. I learned by doing, faced difficulties, and persisted in hard work for 10 years.
They dug holes in mountains and built bridges in ditches. They flattened 1,250 hills, built 151 aqueducts, dug 211 tunnels, built 12,408 buildings of various types, and excavated and laid earth and stone. The wall is built into a wall 2 meters wide and 3 meters high, which can run through the north and south of the motherland and connect Guangzhou and Harbin. The completion of the Hongqi Canal has had a huge impact at home and abroad and has become a banner in my country's water conservancy construction.
On April 2, 2015, Yang Gui, the founder of the artificial Tianhe Hongqi Canal, passed away in Beijing. According to Mr. Yang’s relatives, Mr. Yang had a bad heart and had been receiving treatment in the hospital. In the early morning of that day, he died due to rescue efforts. Unfortunately, Fu Fu passed away at the age of 90.
The death of Mr. Yang Gui is a tragedy for the people of Linzhou, and it is no less than a bolt from the blue for the colleagues, model workers and good friends who worked on the construction of the Hongqi Canal.