Crossing the Jinsha River again after 91 years: Warming the cloud cliffs and illuminating the distance | Starting a new Long March

In May 1935, Jiaoping Crossing. It took 6 wooden boats, 37 boatmen, 7 days and 7 nights, and tens of thousands of Central Red Army troops to cross the Jinsha River without firing a shot or losing a single soldier. Comrade Mao Zedong's poem "The golden sands and water beat against the clouds and cliffs are warm" fixed the strategic victory of breaking out of the encirclement of hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang troops.

91 years later, the same section of the river. The Wudongde Hydropower Station stands majestically, with a total installed capacity of 10.2 million kilowatts of clean electricity. It goes over the mountains and ridges along the "power tower on the knife spine" and passes through the "energy artery" of Kunliulong DC all the way east, lighting up thousands of lights in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The cross-river bridge connects both sides of the river. The descendants of the boatmen opened restaurants in the new communities. The vegetables produced in the riverside base are on dining tables far away...

One river, two crossings. What has changed is the time, space and mission, but what remains unchanged is the spirit of refusing to admit defeat and daring to chew hard bones.

Six wooden boats, how to survive natural dangers

At the Jiaopingdu Red Army Crossing the River Memorial Hall, the commentator Zhang Yajuan told that period of history from the beginning. "The ferry was not far downstream back then," she pointed at the map. "Now it has been flooded by the reservoir area of the Wudongde Power Station, and the water level is almost 100 meters higher than the old ferry."

The river is now green and calm. "The water has become deeper and quieter, but the river is still the same river."

On April 29, 1935, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission issued instructions to quickly cross the Jinsha River. In order to ensure the success of crossing the river, the Central Revolutionary Military Commission established a crossing headquarters, with Chief of General Staff Liu Bocheng as the commander and Chen Yun as the political commissar. Liu Bocheng formulated the "Code for Crossing the River", which strictly stipulates the order and discipline of crossing the river.

The cadre regiment took the lead in seizing the Jiaoping Ferry. They disguised themselves as Kuomintang troops and controlled the ferry without firing a shot. The Red Army found Zhang Chaoshou, a long-term worker in the local area, as a guide, and Zhang Chaoshou found 36 more boatmen. 37 boatmen of all ethnic groups and 6 wooden boats ferry around the clock. From the evening of May 3 to May 9, the entire Central Red Army crossed the Jinsha River, completely leaving behind hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang troops.

Where is the "coincidence"? Zhang Yajuan talked about three "clevers": the first clever strategy - the Red Army feigned an attack on Kunming to mobilize the Kuomintang troops, and took advantage of the opportunity to rush straight into the Jinsha River; the second clever plot - the Kuomintang army's Yunnan military map intercepted by the Red Army provided accurate guidance for crossing the river; the third clever disguise - the advance team took off the epaulette and cap badge, and outsmarted the ferry without firing a shot.

On the yellowed copy of the "Rules for Crossing the River" in the showcase, the characters in italics are faintly discernible: "Boat workers take turns to change shifts, and the boat does not stop when people are resting." "Torches are illuminated at night, and open flames are prohibited."

Zhang Yajuan said: "It is not the Red Army who picks up the boatmen, but the boatmen who recognize the Red Army." When Chen Yun reported the Central Red Army's Long March to the Communist International, he listed "correct treatment of the masses and gaining support from the masses" as one of the three major reasons for the victory of the Long March.

On the Jinsha River, another "attack"

More than 80 years later, a new battle began on the lower reaches of the river where the Red Army rushed to cross. China Three Gorges Corporation has built the Wudongde Hydropower Station, a major national project of "transmitting electricity from west to east" here.

The three characters "Wudongde" mean "Pingzi with a good harvest" in Yi language. For China Hydropower people, behind this name are world-class problems that need to be overcome.

Peng Bo, deputy director of the Jinsha River Downstream Management Department of Three Gorges Construction Engineering, once participated in the construction of Wudongde underground factory. He recalled: "Inheriting and carrying forward the spirit of the Long March means not shrinking in the face of difficulties, seeking truth from facts and finding solutions. Through large-scale party building, we organized all parties involved in the construction to the site, jointly researched technical issues, coordinated resources and progress, and used scientific methods to overcome difficulties together to ensure 'project safety and on-time power generation.'"

It was in this kind of collaboration and research that Wudongde built the world's thinnest 300-meter ultra-high arch dam, and built a "seamless dam" through low-heat cement concrete, intelligent temperature control and other technologies. The 89.8-meter-high underground main factory broke the underground factory height record when it was completed.

After the dam is completed and the unit is put into operation, the battle is not over.

Wudongde Hydropower Station is the largest hydropower station integrated into China Southern Power Grid. Its power transmission is divided into two channels on the left and right banks: 3 circuits of 500 kV lines on the left bank are connected to the Luquan converter station, and 3 circuits of 500 kV lines on the right bank are connected to the Kunbei converter station. The Kunbei converter station is the delivery terminal of the Kunliulong DC project - a ±800 kV UHV multi-terminal flexible DC project with a total length of approximately 1,452 kilometers and a transmission capacity of 8 million kilowatts. As of August 2026, more than 150 billion kilowatt-hours of clean hydropower have been delivered, which is equivalent to reducing coal burning by 43 million tons and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 115 million tons.

Kunbei Converter Station is the "exit", Wudongde Hydropower Station is the "source", and the 500 kV AC transmission line connecting the two is the "channel". On this passage, Tower A(B) No. 2 is the most difficult node on the entire line.

Zeng Lei, the construction manager of the Yunnan Power Transmission and Transformation Company, is in his early fifties. He is lean and his face was tanned deep red by ultraviolet light from the plateau. Pointing to a ravine, he said that when he came to survey for the first time in 2020, he had a safety rope tied to his body and his feet slipped on the gravel. He didn't dare to look down even when he was halfway up.

That road, strictly speaking, is not a road at all. The two of them used their hands and feet to move up inch by inch. There were four trips before and after, each time with different professional and technical personnel to review the terrain, measurement data, and demonstration plan. To this day, he still has several scars on his calves made by sharp rocks.

The Yunnan Power Transmission and Transformation Company where Zeng Lei works is responsible for Section 1 of the 500 kV transmission line from Wudongde Hydropower Station to Kunbei Converter Station. Tower A(B)2 is the most difficult node to overcome in the entire bidding section and even the entire project. The four "nothings" - no construction work surface, no material placement point, no spoil storage point, and no small transport road - put the builders in a seemingly unsolvable dilemma.

But the project cannot be stopped.

Zeng Lei and his team held more than a dozen on-site meetings and finally decided to build a platform. Build roads first - if there are no roads, build plank roads. The construction team used steel pipes and wooden boards to build a 1.2-kilometer-long suspended plank road with a width of only 80 centimeters, just enough for one person to pass. One side of the plank road is a mountain and the other side is a cliff.

It took the construction team nearly four months to complete the 1.2-kilometer plank road. 1,380 steel pipes were all carried up one by one by workers. Worker Yang Zhihui, who is not tall, only 1.65 meters tall, is walking on the plank road with a six-meter-long steel pipe on his back. Both ends are beyond shoulder width. He must be careful to maintain balance at every step, otherwise one end will hit the mountain and the other end will slide off the cliff. He carried 137 poles, the most among the entire team. His co-workers later nicknamed him "Steel Pipe Man".

After the plank road was built, a bigger project began - building a platform on the cliff. Some platforms are built on nearly vertical rock walls, hanging in the air like swallows' nests. The construction method is to drill holes into the rock wall and drive anchor rods, weld the steel frame to the anchor rod, and lay steel plates on the steel frame. Each anchor must undergo a tensile test, and the lowest bearing capacity must reach 1.36 tons per square meter. A total of 184 anchoring points were installed in the entire project, and more than 2,000 square meters of active protection net were installed. From a distance, the mountain looks like it is wrapped in a huge iron net.

For Wudongde today, the test is not only how much power it can generate, but also whether it can adjust power generation output in a timely and reliable manner when the grid needs it.

As the largest hydropower station dispatched by China Southern Power Grid, Wudongde operates for more than 350 days of peak shaving every year, with a maximum peak shaving capacity of more than 9 million kilowatts in a single day. 350 days shows that peak shaving is almost daily; 9 million kilowatts is equivalent to the electricity demand of 6 million air conditioners with a power of 1.5 kilowatts running at the same time. These adjustments are not only related to the power supply during peak power consumption, but also related to whether wind power and photovoltaic power can better enter the power grid.

It can be adjusted dynamically, but it must be adjusted stably for a long time. Frequent starts, stops, and output adjustments place higher requirements on equipment status, operation, and maintenance.

Only the guide vane drainage before unit maintenance required operators to manually complete more than 70 operations in the past, which took one to two hours. Researchers at Wudongde Power Plant worked with the design unit to analyze operating data, perform simulations, and develop the "one-click guide vane drainage" function after calculations and tests. In 2022, during the test of Unit 7, the system automatically completed the drainage operation process in 15 minutes and has since been put into use. Behind a button is repeated research and verification of equipment and water flow patterns.

From overcoming construction problems to solving new problems in operation, the inheritance of the Long March spirit lies in facing difficulties again and again, respecting laws and continuing to innovate.

Light up the distance and light up the days by the river

In the Wudongde reservoir area, Jiaopingdu, Wudongde, Hongmendu and other bridges connect the two sides of Sichuan and Yunnan. These bridges were built during the construction of the Udonde project. For Pei Xinhui, the Jiaoping Crossing Bridge connects his relatives in Huili, Sichuan. She often walks on this bridge when she goes to Huili to visit relatives.

Pei Xinhui is the granddaughter of Zhang Chaoman, a boatman who helped the Red Army cross the river. Today, she lives in Jinrui Community, Wudongde Town, Luquan County, and runs a restaurant called "Old Boatman's House".

Initially, in order to support the construction of the Wudongde project, her family actively cooperated with the relocation. The staff came to explain the policy and understand the resettlement wishes. After she understood it, she quickly signed. After moving into the new community, the restaurant is larger than before, with more complete facilities and can accommodate 25 tables.

Now, the chef is her son. He came back after learning to be a chef and took over the job of running the restaurant. Pei Xin will help in the store and take care of his grandson more often. The child goes to kindergarten in a newly built school in the community.

When talking about the changes in her life, she only remembers things around her: the road was opened in front of her door, solar street lights were turned on, and it was easier to visit neighbors at night. Going to the county town to do errands took four or five hours from where I lived in the past, but now I can get there in two hours from the community.

She is still thinking about running the restaurant well. The dishes should be improved so that guests can be satisfied and think of "Old Boatman's Home" first when they want to eat. The family's plan lies in this meal.

After the relocation, the local area continued to plan for industrial development. In Jiaopingdu Town, vegetable greenhouses connect distant markets, opening up new ways for villagers to increase their income.

In the continuous vegetable greenhouses, integrated water and fertilizer facilities operate automatically, and villagers harvest vegetables between the ridges. The planting area here exceeds 2,100 acres, including lettuce, baby cabbage, celery... more than 10 varieties of vegetables are grown in the base, and more than 300 villagers work nearby all year round.

The local area integrates funds such as east-west cooperation and post-immigration support, and introduces leading companies to invest and operate. The villagers can collect rent by transferring the land; they can also earn a salary by growing vegetables and harvesting at the base. The village collective also has dividend income through taking shares.

Li Caichun once lived in Jiaoping Ferry and became a worker at an organic vegetable base after moving. Today, she earns more than 4,000 yuan a month. She said: "You get rent when you rent the land, and you also work a job right next to your home. You can make money and take care of your family at the same time."

More than 90 years ago, 37 boatmen used 6 wooden boats to ferry 30,000 Red Army troops across the Jinsha River. More than 90 years later, a group of builders built roads and bridges on the cliffs and erected iron towers on the cliffs; a group of dedicated relocated immigrants worked hard and lived a prosperous life.

One river, two crossings, what crosses is the people, what remains is the spirit.