The man-made Hongqi channel, also known as the Red Flag channel, runs through the Taihang Mountains, in this photo taken on Sept 27, 2011. The Taihang Mountains run down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Henan, Shanxi and Hebei provinces. Half a century ago, to ease the drought plaguing the Linzhou city in Central China's Henan province for several centuries, around 10,000 pioneers spent ten years starting from early 1960's digging the channel through rocks and cliffs to direct water from the Zhuozhang river in southern areas of Taihang mountain range to the area. The project changed the conditions for local agricultural production and improved the local ecological environment. [Photo/Xinhua]