{"id":147,"date":"2023-10-24T03:58:32","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T19:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/2023\/10\/24\/farmer-spends-36-years-chiselling-an-irrigation-channel\/"},"modified":"2023-10-24T03:58:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T19:58:32","slug":"farmer-spends-36-years-chiselling-an-irrigation-channel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/farmer-spends-36-years-chiselling-an-irrigation-channel\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmer Spends 36 Years Chiselling An Irrigation Channel"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Chinese farmer has brought water and hope to his remote village after spending 36 years digging a channel with his hands.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Chinese farmer has brought water and hope to his remote village after spending 36 years digging a channel with bare hands.<\/p>\n

\"3F6B397600000578-4428802-Determined_Huang_Dafa_from_China_s_Caowangba_Village_spent_more_-a-41_1492716309154.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Determined: Huang Dafa, from China’s Caowangba Village, spent more than three decades building an irrigation channel with bare hands Photo:Chinadaily<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hu Dafa, who learned irrigation from scratch in his middle ages, built the passageway which runs through the side of three mountains, with the help from his neighbours, reported Chinese media.<\/p>\n

The channel measures around six miles (10 kilometres) long and is situated in south-east China’s Guizhou Province.<\/p>\n

\"Huang-Dafa-water-canal3-750x750.jpg\"<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Photo:odditycentral<\/span><\/p>\n

The villagers he led only had hand tools\uff0dand explosives. He’s the stuff of legend\uff0dbut real. Huang Dafa is arguably an actual, modern incarnation of the ancient myth of Yu Gong.<\/p>\n

The saying yu gong yi shan\uff0dor “the old man moves mountains”\uff0dis a parable of persistence that seems foolhardy in the face of unimaginable odds.<\/p>\n

Fable says two peaks separated Yu Gong’s home from the village.<\/p>\n

\"Huang-Dafa-water-canal-750x563.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Photo:odditycentral<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

So, he decided to dig them away.<\/p>\n

Another elderly man mocked him. Yu Gong responded that while his descendants could dig for generations, the mountains wouldn’t grow any higher.<\/p>\n

The gods were so moved by his determination that they moved the mountains for him.<\/p>\n

Huang enjoyed no such divine intervention.<\/p>\n

He had to rely on pure will.<\/p>\n

\"Huang-Dafa-water-canal6-750x500.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Photo:odditycentral<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The 81-year-old spent 36 years persuading and then leading villagers to chisel about 10 kilometers of irrigation channels into the vertical sides of three karst mountains.<\/p>\n

Droughts below puckered the soil and left residents with just enough drinking water.<\/p>\n

Villagers forging the waterway sometimes had to hike to the top of the ascendable side of the mountains, tie themselves to trees and rappel down sheer\uff0dsometimes-concave\uff0dcliff faces.<\/p>\n

\"Huang-Dafa-water-canal7-750x500.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Photo:odditycentral<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The peaks stood in the way of the water source nearest Caowangba village on the outskirts of Guizhou province’s Zunyi city.<\/p>\n

So, like the ancient Yu Gong, Huang grabbed a shovel\uff0dand made the impossible possible.<\/p>\n

It was not only difficult but also dangerous.<\/p>\n

Huang was the first to lash himself to a tree trunk at the top of a 300-meter-high cliff and take a leap of faith over the edge, he says.<\/p>\n

“If I didn’t, nobody else dared.”<\/p>\n

Source:odditycentral, Chinadaily, Ecns<\/p>\n

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