Micro archive
Name: Miyun Reservoir
Micro location: is located in the northeast of Beijing, more than 70 kilometers southwest of Beijing city
Date of birth: Built in 1958, completed in 1960
Micro case: The capital of Beijing is important Surface drinking water source and water resources strategic reserve base
On May 2, 2024, an aerial view of Miyun Reservoir. Photographed by Beijing News reporter Tao Ran
Miyun Reservoir is like a mirror embedded in the mountains.
As an important surface drinking water source and strategic water resource reserve base in the capital Beijing, it has been closely related to tens of millions of people since its construction began in 1958.
People often say this: for every three glasses of water that Beijingers drink, two glasses come from Miyun Reservoir. For more than 60 years, the work of ensuring water purification has been ongoing.
Build a reservoir, and a pool of green water will moisturize everything.
"The country is going to build the Miyun Reservoir, which can solve flood problems. This is also something that Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou are very concerned about. Who in our village wants to go? We will also give you work points!" His home is in Beijing Su Guizhi, an old man from Beibaiyan Village, Xiwengzhuang Town, Miyun District, is 84 years old this year. He talks endlessly about rolling up his sleeves and picking up a shovel to build the reservoir.
In the early autumn of 1958, the production team cadres gathered all the villagers together, and 18-year-old Su Guizhi immediately signed up. There were more than 20 people in the village, but there were only three women. She was the youngest among them all. She set out before dawn, carrying a quilt on her back, and walked all day to rush to the construction site to report. There was a lack of large-scale machinery at that time, and many jobs were carried on the shoulders. Su Guizhi, like the male laborers, carried more than a hundred kilograms of soil and left. The Miyun Reservoir Exhibition Hall uses props to recreate the scene of dam construction at that time. On the gentle slope, people can also use trains to transport materials upward. In dangerous and steep areas, only manual rope traction and belt conveyors can be used to transport materials to the dam.
On the construction site, Su Guizhi mainly sifted sand and gravel, dug open channels, and transported crushed earth and rocks. She only had one pair of pants, which were soaked with sweat during the day, and she lit a stove in the work shed to dry them off at night. In the middle of winter, temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius are common, but she was still sweating while working in single clothes during the day.
Why build a reservoir despite gritting your teeth? Su Guizhi said that what supported her was that she could earn work points for her family, and she hoped to help her hometown eliminate floods. She once heard her grandpa say that there was a flood that wiped out all the crops and houses at home. At that time, her grandpa saved his life by clinging to a tree.
According to literature records, in the more than 500 years of the Ming and Qing dynasties alone, there were more than 380 major and minor floods in the Chaohe and Baihe rivers. Water entered Beijing five times and flooded Tianjin eight times. At its worst, boats were allowed to sail on the streets of Tianjin. From 1949 to 1958, a total of 10.596 million acres of cultivated land in the lower reaches of the Chaobai River was flooded, 22,000 houses collapsed, and 380,000 people were affected, causing agricultural economic losses of nearly 10 million yuan.
On September 1, 1960, the Miyun Reservoir successfully blocked the flood, but the follow-up finishing work was still very arduous. Su Guizhi chose to stay on the construction site and worked on the finishing work for several more months.
In this way, Su Guizhi witnessed the entire construction process of Miyun Reservoir. At a celebration in 1959, she also performed waist drums with her sisters. At that time, Premier Zhou Enlai stood on the dam and celebrated with the villagers who came over.
The Chaohe River flows from Gubeikou into Miyun District, Beijing, and flows southwestward into the Miyun Reservoir. Baihe River originates from Guyuan County, Hebei Province, enters Yanqing District of Beijing City at Baihebao, flows eastward through Huairou District, then enters Miyun District, and finally flows into Miyun Reservoir.
Today, there is no longer a ferocious roar. The river flows quietly into the Miyun Reservoir, drawing a pool of clear water to moisturize everything. Several leisure parks have been built on both sides of the bank. The bird flew up from the water, flapped its wings, and landed on a bench in the park. People approached it and did not leave.
The Miyun Reservoir Exhibition Hall, built in 2020, is located in a quiet park by the river. The exhibits inside tell the story of the dam construction.
Leaving their homeland, immigrants eat "tourist food"
In addition to curing floods, another function of the Miyun Reservoir is to ensure urban water supply. Data shows that from 1960 to 2020, Miyun Reservoir supplied approximately 28 billion cubic meters of water to Beijing, with an average annual water supply of 650 million cubic meters.
But at the same time, about 70,000 villagers in the reservoir area have left the land where their ancestors have lived for generations and become reservoir immigrants.
The Miyun Reservoir Exhibition Hall displays such a set of data: In the 20th century, the construction of Miyun Reservoir carried out three large-scale relocations and seven small-scale relocations. A total of 102 villages were relocated, 16,010 households were immigrated, and the emigrant population was 69,346 people. The construction of the reservoir occupied a total of 286,000 acres of cultivated land, accounting for 42.1% of the county's total cultivated land area. Miyun changed from a county with surplus grain to a county with grain shortage.
Wang Shuping, the 68-year-old first secretary of Jianyan Village, told reporters that the land in the old Jianyan Village is fertile and can grow rice, and there is a lot of arable land per capita. However, after moving to the new site, the average per capita in the village is only 20%. land. But even if the land is divided into two parts, everyone wants to do their best to plant it well. Because of the lack of water in the dry land, the villagers carried hoes and dug an irrigation canal on Beishan Mountain day after day.
But in the 1990s, in order to conserve the Miyun Reservoir, the villagers of Jianyan Village stopped using the irrigation canals dug by their own hands. The irrigated land that had finally been irrigated became dry land that depended on the weather. Later, the villagers simply quit. Wheat cultivation, decided to develop fish farming. By 2003, the management level of Miyun Reservoir was strengthened. In order to protect the reservoir, the villagers are willing to give up fish farming in cages. Some chicken and duck farmers have also closed their farms to conserve water.
In December 2014, with the official opening of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, water conservation measures in Miyun District became stricter. In 2016, Miyun District evicted all small and medium-sized farmers in the first-level protected areas, and Jianyan Village completely banned livestock and poultry raising, causing another setback in the economy. The village had to continue to explore the road to development, and folk tourism became the next direction.
Wang Shuping led the villagers to build the original smelly water pond in the village into a small square, and turned the dirt road that was originally filled with dirty water into a leisure trail. In recent years, a small bookstore and a large stage have been built in the village to encourage villagers to develop eco-tourism. Today, Jianyan Village has become more beautiful. An east-west road into the village connects the buildings on both sides. The streets are clean, with white walls and black tiles. The walls are painted with ink and oil paintings, and artificially cultivated flowers are dotted on the roadside.
"In 2016, Jianyan Village was still a low-income village, but now it has already been 'off the low'. The village has become a 'tourist rice', and there are more than 100 folk households alone. The annual per capita disposable income of villagers has continued to grow for many years. Many villagers who have gone out to work are returning to their hometowns," Wang Shuping said.
In late September this year, Miyun Reservoir will enter the fishing season. Some villagers in Jianyan Village are certified fishermen and will be able to fish by boat. Wang Shuping said that the village committee also encourages villagers to participate in the transportation and sales of reservoir fish, so as to increase their income. She told reporters, "Jianyan Village is taking the path of ecologically enriching the people. We must protect the Miyun Reservoir and the surrounding ecological environment, but we must also allow the villagers to have work and income."
The fishermen got off the boat and "changed careers" to work in water conservation Member
As soon as September entered, 33-year-old fisherman Guo Xiaochao of Beibaiyan Village began to buy new fishing nets. From September 25th to March 31st of the following year, it is the fishing season in Miyun Reservoir. For Guo Xiaochao, this is the hardest but happiest time of the year.
Fishing in Miyun Reservoir is not an easy task. Miyun Reservoir has strict regulations on fishing behavior, including that the mesh of fishing nets must be larger than 14.5 cm to ensure that small fish are not caught and continue to grow in the reservoir; all fishing boats can only be hand-cranked and are not allowed to have any external power devices to strictly prevent pollution of the reservoir area. water environment. The entire Miyun Reservoir covers an area of more than 180 square kilometers. Sometimes fishermen can row a boat for a whole day without seeing anyone else, and there is a mist all around.
Guo Xiaochao is the third generation of fishermen in his family. Grandpa Guo Dehe started fishing in the 1960s and was reluctant to get off the boat until he was 60 years old. His father, Guo Mingli, has been a fisherman since 1980 and will not retire until the spring of 2022.Relying on the income from fishing, Guo Mingli built 14 brick houses at home in the 1990s.
Guo Xiaochao has a similar figure to his father. He is of medium height, with broad shoulders and thick arms. When he was a teenager, he was asked by his father to help carry fishing gear. With dozens of kilograms of weight on his shoulders, Guo Xiaochao would not complain about being tired. Because his father told him that if he wanted to become a fisherman when he grew up, he would have to endure hardships.
The reservoir has brought rich gifts to fishermen. In winter, fish are used to swimming in groups under the ice. Guo Mingli is a master at finding fishing nets. He will observe the signs of fish schools through the ice, then decisively cut through the ice and directly lower the net to catch fish. In the winter of 2020, the father and son caught 70,000 kilograms of fish in one day and were very happy.
For young Guo Xiaochao, it doesn’t matter if he can’t catch fish. He enjoys the process of fishing. He feels that standing on the boat feels as free as a fish in the water. Catching fish is a surprise from the reservoir. If you can't catch fish, just looking at the scenery is also a kind of enjoyment. "
Guo Mingli, who no longer fishes due to age, takes care of the chestnut trees planted on the mountain. He said that trees can conserve water sources and purify surface runoff, and planting trees also indirectly conserves water. There are also some fishermen who have become water grid workers after retirement. Zhang Jianhua used to be a fisherman in the reservoir. He now spends half of every month inspecting the environment near the reservoir area with his colleagues. They must not only ensure environmental sanitation, but also discourage and stop poaching and other water-related illegal activities during the fishing ban period.
There are also some fishermen who take on the responsibility of water surface cleaners when they are not fishing. Zhu Xijun, 48, is one of them. Zhu Xijun said that if the floating objects on the water are relatively dense, the cleaning ship will activate the automatic salvage function, allowing the floating objects to be transported onto the ship along the crawler tracks, concentrated in the collection area, and then uniformly handled by the staff. If the floating objects are scattered or too large, the cleaning staff will row a boat to manually salvage them. "Everyone in Miyun knows a saying: Protect the Miyun Reservoir like you protect your eyes. When I was young, I gained wealth from the reservoir. Now that I am a cleaner, I am giving back to the reservoir," he said.
Modern water conservation, new technology shows its talents
Duan Xiaolong, deputy captain of Miyun Reservoir Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade, has worked in Miyun Reservoir for nearly 30 years. Before the Miyun Reservoir Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade was established, he worked in the Miyun Fisheries Bureau and was responsible for inspecting illegal fishing.
Duan Xiaolong recalled that in the 1990s, there were few law enforcement personnel and poor equipment. Communication almost relied on shouting, and the boats were mainly hand-cranked boats. At that time, people who stole fish had very little legal awareness and often violently resisted the law. Every April and May, law enforcement officers patrol Kuli 24 hours a day to crack down on illegal electrofishing. "At that time, I felt that the reservoir was too big. Sometimes I walked for days at a time, and it felt like I couldn't get to the edge no matter how much I walked."
In recent years, the Miyun Reservoir law enforcement organization has become more and more complete. In 2016, the Miyun Reservoir Management Office and eight departments involved in reservoir law enforcement established a joint law enforcement brigade, which is fully responsible for reservoir law enforcement. In 2018, the Miyun Reservoir Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade was established to uniformly exercise 131 water-related law enforcement rights of district-level departments involving the Miyun Reservoir first-level protected area. The entire comprehensive law enforcement brigade is composed of 7 township teams and 1 water team. The township team is responsible for water conservation work within the town area, and the water team is responsible for water conservation work on the water.
At the technical level, the Miyun Reservoir Law Enforcement Brigade has now established a three-in-one water conservation work system of "civil defense, physical defense, and technical defense". On August 2 this year, Miyun District launched the 100-day campaign for safety improvement of the Miyun Reservoir. Reservoir inspections have gained more technological power. New drones and unmanned ships have been put on duty to participate in daily inspections, helping law enforcement personnel accurately and quickly investigate and deal with illegal activities.
At the base of the Miyun Reservoir Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade Water Division, a large screen that occupies the entire wall is particularly eye-catching. The three-dimensional real-life map of Miyun Reservoir seen from the air appears on it.Information such as the area, storage capacity, water level, real-time status of the drone, case handling status, real-time locations and trajectories of law enforcement officers and fishermen of the Miyun Reservoir are displayed on the screen one by one.
"As you can see on the map, there are many points marked along the perimeter of the reservoir. These are the areas with high incidence of water-related violations that we have summarized through statistical analysis of historical cases and the current hydrological characteristics of the reservoir. These are also the focus of inspections. Lang Dantong, a staff member of the Monitoring and Command Center of the Miyun Reservoir Comprehensive Law Enforcement Brigade, said that the newly put into use intelligent patrol system can realize many functions. Relying on drones and unmanned ships equipped with high-definition cameras and infrared equipment, it can conduct inspections of the reservoir. Inspection of the entire area.
On August 24, 2023, the emergency monitoring and command ship "Miyun Ecological Environment" sailed in Miyun Reservoir. Photo by Beijing News reporter Wang Zicheng
Lang Dantong said that from a high-altitude perspective, drones can accurately cover every hidden corner of the reservoir area, making up for the blind spots of manual inspections, and can hover to collect video evidence and take photos of illegal personnel. In addition, there are unmanned ships equipped with advanced equipment such as millimeter-wave radar obstacle avoidance systems and inertial navigation systems, which can obtain real-time information on the water surface and shore of the reservoir area. They are flexible and easy to operate, and can stay in a certain area for a long time to achieve control. Monitoring of key locations in the reservoir area helps law enforcement officers accurately and quickly investigate and deal with illegal activities.
On August 29 this year, Ma Chao, deputy director of Miyun District, announced that Miyun District has in recent years deepened the "5+2" water conservation mechanism of upstream water conservation, forest protection, reservoir area water conservation, legal water conservation, policy water conservation, technology water conservation, and national water conservation; The water quality of Miyun Reservoir has always maintained Category II and is improving steadily. The water volume has remained at about 3 billion cubic meters all year round, achieving the strongest strategic water resource reserve capacity in the city.
When Su Guizhi is bored at home, she will let her children drive her around the reservoir. There are lush trees around the reservoir. Especially in summer, you can often see many young people riding motorcycles on the tree-lined road, and photographers standing on the viewing platform to take pictures of water birds. Seeing these scenes, she would roll down the car window and let the moist wind blow on her face. "Seeing so many people liking 'this basin of water' makes me feel proud of myself back then."
微微 Chat
Reservoir Builder Su Guizhi:
grew up by the reservoir, has been related to the reservoir all his life
Beijing News: Why did the reservoir need to be built at that time?
Su Guizhi: I was actually not yet 18 years old at the time, so I was considered 18 years old according to my fictitious age. I am the eldest child in the family, my younger sisters and younger brothers are still young, and my father is in poor health, so I am the most capable person in the family. At that time, I heard that you could earn work points by building the Miyun Reservoir, so I signed up. In addition, there were floods in the Chaobai River in history, and my grandfather was almost washed away. I think building a reservoir is also a good thing, as it can prevent floods.
Beijing News: What is the most impressive thing about ?
Su Guizhi: The most impressive thing about is that it was so tiring to work at that time. I was poor at that time and only had one or two pairs of clothes. I had to work all day during the day and my back and legs ached. I had to wash the clothes and dry them on the stove at night. Dozens of sisters slept in a work shed, and they all slept soundly, without even the energy to chat. Now that I think about it, there are a few scenes that I always remember. One is when everyone competes to carry broken clods of soil. You can carry 100 kilograms, and I can carry 150 kilograms. One by one, we compete. Also, there was a celebration party in 1959. A dozen of us sisters performed waist drums. At that time, Premier Zhou Enlai stood on the dam, waving to us and applauding us. At that time, I was extremely happy.
Beijing News: Did have any interactions with the reservoir after completing the construction?
Su Guizhi: We are people who grew up beside the reservoir, and we have been related to the reservoir all our lives. My wife once worked as a fisherman in the reservoir, and my daughter also worked in the reservoir. Many people in our Beibaiyan Village are water conservation grid members. I myself often go around the reservoir. Now that my legs are inconvenient, I ask the children to take me there.The ecology of Miyun Reservoir is now very good. When we built the reservoir, the mountains were still bare. Now the trees are lush and the water is clear and bright. I have seen the sea before, and I feel that even the sea is not as beautiful as our Miyun Reservoir.
Beijing News reporter Zhao Lixin
editor Zhang Lei proofreader Chen Diyan
