With the completion of the world's largest dam on May 20, 2006, the Three Gorges Hydropower Project formally begins its role in flood control two years ahead of schedule.

 

The Three Gorges Dam  The 2309-meter-long Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest concrete gravity dam.	Primeval Physiognomy of Zhongbao Island The Zhongbao Island in the Yangtze River in Yichang, Central China's Hubei Province, where the Three Gorges Dam is located.

Launched in 1993, the Three Gorges Project, with a 2,309-meter-long, 185-meter-high dam and 26 generators, is being built in Central China's Hubei Province, in three phases on the middle reaches of the Yangtze, China's longest river.

In addition to flood control, the Three Gorges Project is expected to generate 84.7 billion kwh of power annually when it is completed in 2008.

The first damming of the Yangtze River The Yangtze River at the Three Gorges section was first dammed on November 8, 1997	Overlooking the Three Gorges Dam under construction

A water conservancy project at the Three Gorges section of the Yangtze was first envisaged in 1918 by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the forerunner of China's democratic revolution. Protracted debates and researches on the project lasted for around half a century.

In 1992, the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, finally approved the Three Gorges Hydropower Project.

The Three Gorges Dam under construction	A worker at the Three Gorges Dam construction site on November 6, 2002

The project is expected to function in flood control, generate clean energy, fuel industrial growth and benefit shipping, with taming the flood-prone Yangtze as its major objective.

Applying advanced technologies, the project recruited 26,000 people, including professionals and specialists from 50-odd countries and regions, at the peak of its construction.

 

Concrete pouring at the construction site of the Three Gorges Dam. The world's best construction equipment is widely applied in the Three Gorges Dam project.	The permanent ship lock of the Three Gorges Dam opens to navigation on June 16, 2003. The two-way five-step permanent ship lock of the Three Gorges Project is the largest of its kind in the world.

Upon its completion, the project will help regions on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze withstand major flooding seen once every 100 years.

To make room for the giant project, about 1.25 million people, mainly farmers in the southwestern Chongqing Municipality, have left their ancestral homes and settled down in other provinces in the world's biggest migrant project.

A pressure conduit pipe, believed to be the biggest one in the world, is installed at the power plant of the Three Gorges Dam.

Demolition of the Old Zigui County Seat The old county seat of Zigui, which will be submerged by water following the completion of the Three Gorges Project, is demolished and cleared up on March 24, 2002. The Zigui County lies in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. There are more than 100,000 people in the county who have to be resettled to make way for the gigantic dam, accounting for some 10 percent of the total 1.25 million migrants. The Three Gorges Project is also the world's largest resettlement project.

So far, the recently completed majestic Three Gorges Dam, at the exit of the 192-km Qutang, Wuxia and Xiling Gorges stretching from Chongqing eastward to Yichang in Hubei Province, has served as an impetus for a tourism boom.

In the first six months of 2006, more than 600,000 visitors came to see the Three Gorges Dam and its surrounding areas, a rise of 60 percent over the same previous period. Tourist arrivals are expected to hit 1.2 million for the whole year, said Zhang Chao, deputy general manager of the Yangtze River Three Gorges Tourism Development Company.

The recently-completed Three Gorges Dam has brought about a tourism boom. Tourist arrivals are expected to hit 1.2 million in 2006.	A local elder at the reservoir area of the Three Gorges Dam