The idea of building a dam across the Yangtze river to control flooding and to and to harness it for hydro power has been the dream of several generations of Chinese since the time of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, forerunner of China’s democratic revolution. The first proposition for construction dates back to the year 1919, when Dr.Sun Yat Sen suggested to build a dam at the Three Gorges. Since1954, Chinese and foreign scientists and engineers have devoted themselves to the planning, design and consulting work of the project. Here are the photos taken at the Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze River during a flood-control test on Tuesday. The capacity of Three Gorges dam, 17 million kilowatts, will top that of the largest dam currently operating by 40 percent. Its projected annual power generation of 84 billion
kilowatt-hours is equivalent to a coal mine capacity of 40 to 50 million tons per year.