Spring breezes turn Dujiangyan of southwest China's Sichuan Province green again. [Photo by Xiang Limin]

As spring approaches, all living things are revived. Having stayed indoors for the better part of a winter, people are happily out relishing the spring breeze.

Named after the Dujiangyan irrigation system, Dujiangyan, a county-level city in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, is an ideal tourist destination for good reason. Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System is listed as a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) world cultural heritage site. Besides, Dujiangyan is also part of UNESCO world natural heritage Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries.

History of Dujiangyan

More than 2,200 years ago, Li Bing, governor of ancient Shu County (today's Sichuan Province) during the Warring States Period (475–221 BCE), led the people to build the Dujiangyan irrigation system to curb the Min River, a tributary of the upper Yangtze River. Thanks to Li Bing and his project, the Chengdu Plain, a place prone to periodic droughts and floods, became a land of abundance. The irrigation system has survived the vicissitudes of history and is still in use today because of regular desilting and maintenance every year. During the dry season in winter, people would build temporary cofferdams at the entrance of the artificial levee with the unique "wood tripod damming method" to alternately intercept the water in inner and outer channels to desilt them.

On Qingming, or Pure Brightness, the fifth solar term of the traditional Chinese lunar calendar which usually falls on April 5, when farmland in the area needs water for spring irrigation, people celebrate the Water-Releasing Festival to commemorate Li Bing and also kick off the spring ploughing.