Scott No: 1104-07
Serial number: N49-52
Values in set: 4
Date of issue: December 30, 1972
Denomination: 32 fen
Designer: Yang Baizi, Xu Yanbo
Engraver: Sun Hongnian, Gao Pinzhang
Size of stamps: 27*40mm
Perforation: 11
Sheet composition: 56(7*8)
Printing process: Engraving and photogravure
Printing House: Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works

Numbered Stamps 49-52 "Red Flag Canal" numbered stamps were issued on December 30, 1972. The set consists of 4 stamps, printed by photogravure combined with engraving, designed by Yang Baizi and Xu Yanbo, engraved by Sun Hongnian and Gao Pinzhang, and printed by the Beijing Stamp Factory. Stamp size 27 mm × 40 mm, perforation gauge 11, 56 stamps per sheet.

Theme of the Set

The Red Flag Canal is located in Lin County, Henan. It is a large-scale water diversion and irrigation project that the people of Lin County spent ten years carving out on the cliffs of the Taihang Mountains. The area has suffered from drought and water shortage since ancient times; the masses relied on self-reliance and fought heaven and earth to divert the Zhang River into Lin County, solving the difficulties of farmland irrigation and drinking water for people and livestock. This set selects four landmark engineering landscapes of the Red Flag Canal, displaying the project's magnificent appearance, praising the Lin County people's striving spirit of fearing no hardships and transforming nature, and carrying forward the Red Flag Canal spirit.

Stamp Designs and Historical Background

The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains

The picture shows a construction site in a Taihang mountain gorge: steep cliffs, red flags fluttering, and builders quarrying stone and cutting through mountains on the precipice to build the canal. Echoing the spirit of the Foolish Old Man who removed the mountains, it recreates the magnificent scene of opening mountains and chiseling stone and arduous construction in the early period of the Red Flag Canal's building.

Youth Cave

The design shows the interior of the Youth Cave of the Red Flag Canal: the tunnel is deep and secluded, and the canal water flows within the cave. The Youth Cave is a key throat project of the Red Flag Canal's main trunk canal, carved through by a youth assault team, and it is the most representative tunnel of the Red Flag Canal.

Taoyuan Bridge

The main subject of the design is the Taoyuan aqueduct, spanning a valley. The bridge body serves both water conveyance and passage: vehicles can travel on the bridge, and canal water rushes beneath it. It is a classic hydraulic structure of the Red Flag Canal combining "bridge and canal in one," embodying the project's ingenious design conception.

A River in the Sky

The picture shows the Red Flag Canal winding along the mountainside of the Taihang Mountains, with the canal water flowing along the mountains like a long river suspended in the mountains. It vividly interprets the reputation of the "man-made river in the sky" and displays the magnificent posture of the Red Flag Canal threading through the mountains and moistening the mountain fields.

Artistic Design Features

The set adopts the photogravure-plus-engraving process, with vigorous and powerful engraved lines and clearly layered rocks, canal water, and structures. The four stamps successively present mountain-opening construction, the tunnel, the aqueduct, and the mountain-winding canal, completely presenting the construction appearance of the Red Flag Canal project. The landscape style is weighty and vigorous, dotted with red elements, with a strong sense of the times. It is a classic work among the numbered stamps on the theme of water conservancy projects.