Steering a Victoria Cruises ship along the Yangtze River's Three Gorges. An area of great beauty, for centuries the tumultuous Three Gorges awed its v
Steering a Victoria Cruises ship along the Yangtze River's Three Gorges. An area of great beauty, for centuries the tumultuous Three Gorges awed its viewers, and inspired some of China's greatest poets and artists. These days the gorges are home to the world's largest electricity-generating plant. Spanning the lower length of the Xiling Gorge, the dam was built to serve three purposes: electricity, increase the river's navigation capacity and reduce the potential for floods, which have claimed 350,000 lives in the last 200 years alone. But it has also flooded a reported 8,000 archaeological and cultural sites, displacing million people (official figures - lobby groups place figures up to 50% more than this), and causing significant ecological changes, including an increased risk of landslides, sediment buildup and erosion. Riddled with corruption, a week after the dam started filling, in 2002, cracks appeared on the dam wall. The Chinese government is hoping that the controversy – and sheer size of the project – will now become a tourist attraction. Work has begun on tourist development overlooking the dam at Sandouping with a series of high-end resorts and more than 3,000 guest rooms. These mud flats used to be home to a city and several temples and pagodas worshipping Fengdu. They were removed, piecemeal, and rebuilt on the far side of the bank before the river was flooded.
Size: 5380px × 3600px
Photo credit: © Leisa Tyler / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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