CHINA - YANGTZE KIANG

About ten years ago the okay was given to build the largest reservoir in the world: the three gorge dam on the Yangtze Kiang in China. The dam will dam the Yangtze river at Wuhan so that it is an almost 700 km long reservoir. At the same time the most powerful power station in the world is being built and should come into operation in 2009. It should then provide almost a ninth of the electric power in China. The reservoir should also solve the problem of the annual floods on the Yangtze Kiang. The project, however, demands a high price from the local population: two million people must move and 19 towns and about 13,500 villages will sink into the reservoir.

This includes many significant archaeological and cultural treasures which even survived the Cultural Revolution under Mao. In 1988 we could still travel on the Yangtze at the point which will soon be a reservoir. The many pictures which we took from the boat during the five days, will unfortunately all too soon be of historical value. If interested in information on this project you can, for example look at www.discovery.de .
 
Tip: Go soon! In Chongquing there is already an official clock which counts the days until the water level will reach its new level. The planned 6m will make a big difference.
 
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