Lee Bing’s (李冰 ) dam

Lee Bing lived 2,500 years ago, in China.

He was the governor of the district of Shu (蜀), present day Sze Chuan(四川). At that time, the place was plague by flood and drought. He studied the river and terrain , and came out with the following solutions :

1. Construct a divider to divide the flow of water in to 2 parts, with part A flowing into the sea and part B use for irrigation. The divider(bamboo cage) is built using local materials, and stones to weigh down the bamboo cage.
2. Blast open a nearby mountain to divert the flow of part B. To do that, he built a dam to block the water around the water, and use a lot of firewood to heat up the mountain face. Then, using manpower relay, he organized villagers to splash water on the hot mountain face. This will force the stones to crack due to expansion and cooling, and the villages can chip away the stones more easily.
3. Sand carried by the river will get stuck between the stones in the bamboo cage, and the divider will be submerged under water. In order to wash away the sand, he made use of back flow(water flowing in opposite direction) of a narby river. Again, another mountain has to be chipped off to make a new water way.

The whole process took him 17 years. And the system is still in use today. The locals there said the Great Wall survived but is for show only, whereas Lee Bing’s dam survived and is still being used !

I admired and respect people, who do projects without worrying about how long it takes, as long as it is for the long term benefit of the majority.

“Kings and generals come and go, war and peace interchanges, and only the dam sees thru all this” – adapted from the local proverb in Shu.