Study Tour in Sichuan and Yunan |
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UNESCO inscribed Dujiangyan in 2000 as a world “cultural [not natural] heritage property”, even though it actually demonstrates how human engineering working as closely with nature as possible can sustain an enormous region and population for many millennia.9 Dujiangyan is the site of an irrigation works dating from the 3rd century BC. Its original engineering continues to function today, through its ingenious use of river currents, silting patterns, and seasonal water elevation changes, without damming or obstructing navigation or species movement. With the aid of some modern extensions to the system, the works control flooding and provide irrigation to over a million hectares of agricultural and urban land, and for approximately one-third of all of Sichuan’s rice production (the largest of any province in China). Li Bing, the governor and engineer who initially designed the project in 256 BC, was later deified and honored in a temple complex overlooking the irrigation works. Staff from the Dujiangyan hydraulic authority led the BE Lab group on a tour of the irrigation works, and explained the impact of the earthquake and subsequent repairs to the system. Through this site, students gained an appreciation for the spatial scale of the natural and human systems at stake; and for the long-term historical integration of nature, culture, political-economy, and science and technology. |
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