The Three Gorges Dam crosses the Yangtze at Sandouping in Yichang, within the Xiling Gorge reach. Its site divides upstream reservoir water from the river below. The dam is not the end of every gorge landscape: cliffs and settlements occur both upstream and downstream. Looking at that setting is the first step towards understanding what the structure controls.
From the journal
A Wall Across the Yangtze
At Sandouping, the Three Gorges Dam connects power generation and navigation with a reservoir that changed the river and its settlements.
In the same city · Yichang ↗
Sandouping in Xiling Gorge
Water, electricity and passing ships
Water passing through turbines generates electricity, while ship locks and a ship lift provide ways for vessels to negotiate the change in level. Flood management is another major purpose of the project. These functions share a structure while following different operating needs. Beside the power station’s vast generating capacity, the slow passage of a ship through the locks gives the scale of the works another measure.
The shore had to change too
Impoundment altered water levels, navigation conditions and the geography of settlements. Communities moved, and cultural sites were documented, relocated or conserved in changed settings. Zigui’s moved county seat gives one local way into that larger history. The project can be read through both engineering and life on the banks, with neither reduced to a decorative backdrop for the other.