China

Beijing

Shanghai

Zhouzhuang

Suzhou

Jingzhou

The Three Gorges

Fengdu - Ghost City

Three Gorges Dam

Dazu - Buddhist Cave Sculptures

Xi'an - Terra Cotta Warriors

An Octopus's Garden?

A Farming Village

Hong Kong

Kowloon

Choosing a China Tour

  Three Gorges Dam  
Three Gorges Dam
In With The New

When completed in 2009, the Three Gorges Dam will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. Stretching a mile across the Yangtze and rising six hundred feet, it will be visible from the moon!

It's purpose is to bring much needed power to inland China and to control the periodic desructive flooding of the Yangtze, but it will also displace more than a million people, submerge ancient temples and burial grounds, endanger or wipe out rare animnals like the Yangtze River dolphin, and cover some of the world's most magnificent scenery.

And Out With The Old

Fengdu Fengdu
The Destruction of Fengdu

The city of Fengu will be covered by the rising waters and, like the other doomed cities, is being torn down so as not to be a menance to navigation.  However, the Ghost City part atop Mt. Minshan (now reached via a ski lift) will survive at the new water level.

Three Gorges Dam These markers show how high the water is going to rise, to one hundred seventy-five meters.
Cities torn down Cities torn down Cities torn down The cities are being torn down by hand, literally brick by brick.

Vist PBS for more information about the dam.