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From Beijing, we travel south by train for three days
and arrive in Henan province.
Its name means "south of the river",
the Yellow River in the central part of China.
This is Linxian district.
The Chinese do not try to conceal the rural poverty of this province.
Henan is the place where the first Chinese state was established 2500 years ago.
It is the capital of wheat and maize, the principal grain of China.
But, most importantly, Henan is also the first region where, in 1958,
agricultural communes were introduced in place of the cooperatives.
Every commune is divided into production brigades. And every brigade is divided into squads.
Every worker receives a small annual monetary salary
and a share of grain sufficient to his needs.
Also the children.
The elderly, who cannot work anymore, are provided with housing, food, garments,
medical aid and coverage of the burial costs.
The pride of this district is the Red Flag Canal.
It is 1500km long and was constructed with bare hands.
The water of Chanhe river was thus brought to this side of the mountains.
The people who live here like to say that, before, water was more rare than petroleum.
30,000 workers known as the Heroes of Linxian
spent 10 years excavating through the granite.
17,000,000 cubic meters of rocks had to be removed.
The dam, the diversion canal and the reservoir were then constructed.
All with very primitive instruments.
Today, Linxian is celebrated as the First Pinnacle of Socialism.
The house and the agricultural instruments are the only private property.
Everything else belongs to the state.
We requested to visit a small village. Ta Zai Tuan£¬1628 inhabitants.
All the public facilities are in this courtyard:
farming equipment and grain storage, the mill and the tailor shop.
The same courtyard hosts the Revolutionary Committee
that supervises the workers at the village.
Today, they hold a meeting.
The nine members of the committee join after work at a cup of tea.
The chairman is called Ma Yongqi. He is 34,
has received a middle school education, and is of peasant backgrounds.
They read a few sayings by Mao, which are made into the starting point of the discussion.
It's May, and the seeding season is over. The commune must now prepare for the autumn.
One of the members remarks that the ideological work
should be put above all other issues.
Once the political discussion is over, they proceed talking about plowing, mowing and sifting the seeds.
After the meeting, the chairman and the vice-chairman
leave to pay a visit to one of the village families.
This is the village school.