Three Gorges Dam

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Lore & Background

Sun Yat-sen envisioned a large dam across the Yangtze River in *The International Development of China* (1919), writing that a dam capable of generating 30 million horsepower (22 GW) was possible downstream of the Three Gorges. In 1932, the Nationalist government, led by Chiang Kai-shek, began preliminary work on plans in the Three Gorges. In 1939, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japanese military forces occupied Yichang and surveyed the area. In 1944, the United States Bureau of Reclamation's head design engineer, John L. Savage, surveyed the area and drew up a dam proposal for a 'Yangtze River Project'. Some 54 Chinese engineers went to the US for training. No construction work was performed because of the Nationalists' worsening situation in the Chinese Civil War. After the 1949 Communist Revolution, Mao Zedong supported the project, but began the Gezhouba Dam project nearby first, and economic problems including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution slowed progress. After the 1954 Yangtze River Floods, in 1956, Mao wrote 'Swimming', a poem about his fascination with a dam on the Yangtze River. In 1958, after the Hundred Flowers Campaign, some engineers who spoke out against the project were imprisoned. During China's emphasis on the Four Modernizations during its early period of Reform and Opening Up, the Communist Party revived plans for the dam and proposed to start construction in 1986. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference became a center of opposition, convening panels of experts who recommended delaying the project. The National People's Congress approved the dam in 1992: of 2,633 delegates, 1,767 voted in favour, 177 voted against, 664 abstained, and 25 members did not vote, giving the legislation an unusually low 67.75% approval rate. Construction started on December 14, 1994. The dam's body, 185 meters high and 2,309 meters wide, was completed in 2006. The power plant became fully operational in 2012, when the last of the 32 main water turbines in the underground plant began production. The last major component of the project, the ship lift, was completed in 2015.

Reader's Guide

The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River near Sandouping in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province. It is the world's largest power station by installed capacity (22,500 MW). The dam has 34 generators: 32 main generators, each with a capacity of 700 MW, and two plant power generators, each with capacity of 50 MW. Among the 32 main generators, 14 are installed on the dam's north side, 12 on the south side, and the remaining six in the underground power plant in the mountain south of the dam. Each of the 32 turbines, considered state-of-the-art at the time of their installation, can generate 700 MW. Combined with the two 50 MW generators, the dam can generate some 22,500 MW—far more than the next-biggest hydroelectric plant, the 16,000 MW Baihetan Dam, also in China. The dam improves the Yangtze River's shipping capacity and provides flood control, helping to protect millions of people from severe flooding on the Yangtze Plain. Estimates of the number of people displaced by the dam's construction range from 1.13 million to around 1.4 million. Its construction has also inundated ancient and culturally significant sites. In operation, the dam has caused some ecological changes, including an increased risk of landslides. The Chinese government considers the project a source of national pride and a major social and economic success. The entire cost of the Three Gorges Dam was recovered by December 20, 2013.

Did You Know?

• After the monsoons of 2020, the dam produced nearly 112 TWh in a year, breaking the record of 103 TWh set by the Itaipu Dam in 2016.
• The dam's 32 main generators each weigh about 6,000 tonnes and are designed to produce more than 700 MW of power each.
• The project used 27.2 million m³ of concrete and 463,000 tonnes of steel—enough to build 63 Eiffel Towers.
• The dam raised the water level in the reservoir to 172.5 m above sea level by 2008 and to the designed maximum level of 175 m by 2010.
• The entire cost of the Three Gorges Dam was recovered by December 20, 2013.

Colossal Scale and Engineering Ambition

The Three Gorges Dam stands as one of the most massive concrete structures ever assembled by human hands. Rising 185 metres above the riverbed and stretching more than 2,300 metres across the Yangtze near Sandouping in Hubei province, the gravity dam demanded an astonishing quantity of materials: roughly 27.2 million cubic metres of concrete for the wall alone, 463,000 tonnes of structural steel—enough, by comparison, to erect sixty-three Eiffel Towers—and the movement of over 102 million cubic metres of earth. Behind the wall, the reservoir stretches an average of 660 kilometres upstream, averaging 1.12 kilometres in width, and holds approximately 39.3 cubic kilometres of water across a surface exceeding 1,000 square kilometres. The dam's main body was finished in 2006, yet the project's full scope extended well beyond that date: the underground power station's final turbine entered service in 2012, and the ship lift, the last major component, was not completed until 2015.

Unmatched Power Output and Economic Payoff

With a total installed capacity of 22,500 megawatts, the Three Gorges power station holds the title of the world's largest hydroelectric facility. Its thirty-two main turbines, each rated at 700 megawatts, were state-of-the-art when installed, and two additional 50-megawatt generators supply the plant's own electrical needs. In a typical year the dam yields roughly 95 terawatt-hours of electricity, though output swings with seasonal rainfall. After the heavy monsoon season of 2020, annual generation climbed to nearly 112 terawatt-hours, surpassing the 103-terawatt-hour record that Itaipu Dam had set in 2016. The facility dwarfs the next-largest hydro plant, China's own Baihetan Dam at 16,000 megawatts. Economically, the project was projected to cost around 180 billion yuan, and by 2008 actual spending had already reached 148.4 billion, with nearly 69 billion allocated to relocating residents. Officials anticipated full cost recovery once cumulative generation hit 1,000 terawatt-hours; in practice, the entire investment was recouped by December 2013, well ahead of the ten-year timeline initially projected.

A Century of Vision and Political Turmoil

The dream of taming the Yangtze at the Three Gorges stretches back to 1919, when Sun Yat-sen sketched a vision of a dam capable of producing thirty million horsepower in his book The International Development of China. Preliminary surveys followed under the Nationalist government in the early 1930s, and in 1944 a team led by American engineer John L. Savage produced a detailed proposal that even included a crane-based system for ferrying ships between locks. Fifty-four Chinese engineers were sent to the United States for training, yet the Chinese Civil War halted all construction. After 1949, Mao Zedong endorsed the idea, yet the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution stalled momentum; in 1958, engineers who voiced opposition were imprisoned. Plans were revived during the Four Modernizations era, but the Political Consultative Conference mounted sustained resistance. The National People's Congress finally gave the green light in 1992 with a notably narrow 67.75 percent approval—664 of 2,633 delegates abstained. Ground was broken on 14 December 1994, and the reservoir reached its full 175-metre design level by 2010.

Displacement, Ecology, and Enduring Controversy

For every megawatt the dam produces, a human and environmental price has been paid. Estimates of the people displaced by the reservoir's flooding range from 1.13 million to roughly 1.4 million, and the inundation swallowed 632 square kilometres of land, including ancient settlements and culturally significant heritage sites. Ecologists have documented shifts in the river's ecosystem, among them a heightened risk of landslides along the steep reservoir banks. Domestically, the project has been a flashpoint: the unusually large block of abstentions in the 1992 parliamentary vote, the earlier imprisonment of dissenting engineers, and the Political Consultative Conference's expert panels all testify to deep-seated disagreement. Internationally, the dam draws criticism on both environmental and humanitarian grounds. Yet the Chinese government frames the achievement as a source of national pride, crediting it with protecting millions on the Yangtze Plain from catastrophic flooding, expanding the river's shipping capacity, and supplying clean electricity that has helped drive the country's rapid economic expansion.

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