Three Gorges Dam

National 5A Tourist Attraction; The Largest Hydroelectric Power Station In The World By Capacity · Yichang, Hubei

The largest power station on earth, a wall of concrete two and a quarter kilometres across the Yangtze at Sandouping, upstream of Yichang. Built between 1994 and 2012, it generates more electricity than any other single installation anywhere, controls the floods that drowned hundreds of thousands of people in the last century, and lifted a reservoir six hundred kilometres up the river - displacing about 1.3 million people and submerging whole cities, which is why it remains the most argued-over structure in China. The tourist area is on the north bank, reached through airport-style screening, and takes in the Tanziling hill with the classic view straight down the dam face, the 185 platform at the crest where you stand level with the top of the wall, and the Tanzi hill overlooks of the five-step ship lock, where cargo vessels climb the equivalent of a forty-storey building in stages. A separate ship lift raises smaller vessels bodily in a single tank. Passport or ID is required, and the area is free to enter with a shuttle fee.

Sandouping, Yiling District, Yichang, Yichang, Hubei, China

Daily, about 8:00-17:30 with last admission around 17:00; entry is by real-name booking up to 7 days ahead in one of two slots (8:00-12:00 or 12:00-17:00), ID and screening are required, and the sightseeing shuttle is compulsory.

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