THREE GORGES (Gravity) DAM

Located mid-way between Chongqing and Wuhan, China

The world's largest generator of electric power from a renewable source

PURPOSE:

1. Reduce Floods
2. Generate Electricity
3. Improve Navigation

The great floods of 1931, 1935 and 1998 killed 290,000 people.  Over 100 shipwrecks have been recorded.

DAM  FACTS:

*   610 feet high.
*   7,661 feet long.
*   131 feet thick at the top and 337 feet thick at the base.
*   The most expensive hydroelectric project in history.
*   The $28 Billion dollar dam project paid for itself in ten years.
*   The cost of the dam is the equivalent of 14 space shuttle missions.
*   The dam can be seen from outer space.
*   150 people died during its construction.
*   40,000 worked on the project from 1992 to 2008.
*   1.4 million people had to be relocated.
*   13 cities were submerged along with 140 towns and 4,500 villages and 1,300 archaeological sites.

Enough concrete and steel were used to build the Eiffel Tower 60 times.   The dam can withstand an earthquake of 7.0 on the Richter Scale.

The dam's 34 generators can produce 22.5 Gigawatts of electricity equivalent to 25 million tons of crude oil.

The "Francis" (adjustable) turbines are 32 feet in diameter and turn at 75 RPM.

The dam also includes five locks with 850 ton hinged gates raising/lowering ocean-going vessels 113 meters over a 4-hour period.

The Three Gorges:

Qutang, Wu & Xiling Gorge

The most spectacular, dramatic peaks; (wonders of nature), along the Yangtze River are the Three Gorges.

Upstream is the five mile long "Qutang Gorge" said to be the shortest, narrowest, most impressive with its huge vertiginous slabs of rock...so impressive...its depicted on the 10 Yuen note pictured above.

Mid-stream is the "Wu Gorge" or "Witches Gorge."  This gorge is 25 miles long and is the greenest of all three.

Downstream is the "Xiling Gorge.  It runs 50 miles making it the longest of the three and is found in the Hubei Province.

Before entering the Three Gorges downstream is the "Lesser Three Gorges."   We sailed on the "Goddess Stream" near Wushan, just recently opened for tourism.