Zhang Guangdou: A hydraulic engineer for the people

2022 marks the 70th anniversary of the Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, and the 110th birth anniversary of Professor Zhang Guangdou. 

Zhang Guangdou (1912-2013), member of both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Professor of Tsinghua University, was a leading expert in hydraulic engineering and engineering education. 

Zhang Guangdou

Early Life

In the summer of 1934, the list of Tsinghua University’s students selected for studying in the U.S. at public expense was announced, with Zhang high on it. After several months of internship, with the aim of learning engineering knowledge to help build his motherland, Zhang set out for the University of California, where he got his master's degree in merely a year. That was when he decided to work in the area of hydraulic engineering and dam design, and had the opportunity to intern at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Zhang Guangdou in Berkeley Library 

That was how he met John Lucian Savage, the Chief Designing Engineer of the Bureau of Reclamation. “He is always my lifelong mentor and great friend,” Zhang said. The American engineer was friendly to China and the Chinese people, and came to China twice, in 1944 and 1946, for the feasibility study for the construction of the Three Gorges Project in China’s Hubei Province.

Zhang Guangdou finished his master's degree at Harvard University in 1937, the year a full-scale resistance war against Japanese aggression broke out in China. His supervisor, Prof. Westgate, recognized Zhang’s talent and wanted him to complete his doctoral studies before heading to China. He even assured Zhang that he could finish his doctoral degree in a year. However, Zhang was determined to return home. Moved by Zhang’s determination, Westgate wrote a letter to Zhang, expressing his respect for Zhang’s patriotism and telling him that Harvard was always open to him.  

Several days after his graduation, Zhang embarked on a journey to China to start his life as a hydraulic engineer.

Leading a life of an engineer: 

always being down-to-earth

Zhang devoted almost 60 years of his life to the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Power Station Project. In 2000, several years after his retirement, the 88-year-old engineer insisted on going to the project construction sites for an on-the-spot investigation. 

Zhang Guangdou at the construction site of the Three Gorges Project

“Engineers should always inspect with their own eyes and feel with their own hands,” he would say.

Zhang Guangdou reviews the preliminary design report of the Three Gorges Project

During the initial phase of developing water conservancy and hydropower projects in China, experts like Zhang drew on the best practices of the developed countries.  

“The first law is being practical and realistic,” Zhang said, meaning that a scientist or engineer should focus on reality, explore a methodology that works best in reality. 

An Unbreakable Bond: 

64 Years at Tsinghua

Zhang’s teaching career began the same year the People’s Republic of China was founded. In 1949, he was invited to teach at Tsinghua University, thus beginning his career in academia.

3 years later, a comprehensive educational reform was carried out across China, aiming to cultivate domestic talents in various fields, drawing from the advanced knowledge and best practices of the former Soviet Union. As part of the reform, the Civil Engineering Department of Peking University merged into Tsinghua University. 

Subsequently, Tsinghua’s Department of Hydraulic Engineering was separated, and Zhang was appointed as its Deputy Dean. 

“I worked about 14 hours every day”, Zhang recalled.

Zhang Guangdou, during a class for his course, “Introduction to hydraulic engineering.”

In 1958, the design and construction of the Miyun Reservoir were carried out by Tsinghua University. To this day, the reservoir is the largest reservoir in northern China and the most important surface drinking water source. The creed of completing the graduation project in the front line met the requirements of development at that time and led teachers and students at Tsinghua to use their wisdom for the development of infrastructure projects like the Miyun Reservoir. 

Zhang Guangdou (first from the right) reporting to Former Premier Zhou Enlai (second from the right) in 1958

Miyun Reservoir today

In 1973, China gained accession to the International Commission on Large Dams, and Zhang was the head of the delegation. 

“It is a milestone in the development of China’s hydraulic engineering,” Zhang said, “It promotes the communication between China and the world to a large extent.” And in 1981, China joined the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, in which Zhang also played a major role. Zhang devoted himself to China’s ascent to the global stage.

Noticing the lack of emphasis on engineering and technology compared with science, Zhang and three other academicians proposed the establishment of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1982 for the first time. Ten years later, Zhang and five other academicians once again brought forward the proposal. This time, their proposal was well received. 

And in 1994, the Chinese Academy of Engineering was formally established. Zhang was appointed as one of its academicians. “Engineering and technology are as important as science,” he said. “Engineers and scientists should be hand in hand.”

Zhang Guangdou (third from the right) and five other academicians

Since 1990s, Zhang pointed out that “enterprises should act as the main bodies of scientific and technological innovation,” notifying the greater role companies played in the society and economy. Meanwhile, he wrote essays about higher engineering education in China, the protection of water resources, and opinions on hydraulic construction, which are more than valuable.

In 2016, Tsinghua University established the Zhang Guangdou Science and Technology Education Foundation to promote the growth of hydraulic engineering talents, passing down Zhang’s spirit to new generations. 

From the Yellow River to the Yangtze River, in every vast mountain and valley, hydraulic engineers have left and are leaving their footprints towards one and another magnificent causes.

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Writer: Wang Yilu

Editors: Huang Fei, Sangeet Sangroula 

Designers: Xia Yifei, Liu Shutian