A 91-year-old Chinese man and his decades-long pursuit of bringing water to a remote mountain village deeply impressed American political commentator and influencer Jackson Hinkle during his visit to southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Huang Dafa, a village leader in Guizhou, first led fellow villagers in an attempt to carve a canal through mountainous terrain in the 1960s, but the effort failed. After studying water engineering techniques, Huang restarted the project in 1992. Working under extremely difficult conditions with basic hand tools, explosives and detonators, he and more than 300 villagers spent over two years carving a nearly 10-kilometer canal along sheer cliffs, crossing three mountains, passing nine cliffs and traversing more than 10 steep ridges, finally realizing the dream over 30 years after the first attempt began.

[Video footage: Discover Guizhou]