Danjiangkou Dam stands on the Han River at Danjiangkou, within Shiyan. Its reservoir extends across parts of Hubei and Henan. The wall is one part of a larger water system: a dam holds and regulates water, while canals and control works determine where that water goes. Calling the dam itself the canal headworks would erase the distance between these structures.
From the journal
A Dam on the Han, a Canal to the North
Danjiangkou Dam holds the reservoir supplying the South-to-North Water Diversion’s middle route, whose canal begins at Taocha in Henan.
In the same city · Shiyan ↗
The Han River held back
Making room for a larger reservoir
The dam was raised for the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion project. Higher operating levels required changes around the reservoir, including the relocation of communities. The engineering altered the reach of the water; the work on the shore involved houses, roads and farmland. Construction and resettlement therefore make two closely connected histories of the enlarged reservoir.
Where the canal begins
The middle-route canal takes water from the reservoir at Taocha, in Xichuan County, Henan, before carrying it north. Danjiangkou Dam in Hubei holds and regulates the water that supplies this separate intake. Following the two structures on a regional map turns a large project into a readable sequence: the river enters a reservoir, water passes into a canal, and the canal continues towards cities far to the north.