Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the Snake. The preconceived opposition to the Chinese project as being merely irresponsible and
anti-environmental, a view that some members of our delegation brought with them from America,
was allayed as we stood before this monument in progress.
The Three Gorges Dam is a construction project comparable in human resolve to those of the
Egyptian pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and the Panama Canal. For all of the human tragedy
associated with such megaprojects, tourists flock to them to see the accomplishment. Spectators are
attracted to the scales and the stories of these achievements and to the recognition that they say
something about the human aspirations of our ancestors even as they were being inhuman. Today,
in the geological interlude between the east and west parts of the Xiling Gorge, the Three Gorges
Dam presents a tangible expression of the assertion of the People's Republic of China that it is the
equal of any country on earth. During debates over China's role in the world economy and its polit-
ical place among the superpowers, it has moved forward with dam building, bridge building, road
building, and city building on a scale that is reminiscent of early-twentieth-century America.
In a modern exhibition building barely one kilometer from the Three Gorges construction site, the
case for the dam is made in what might be seen as a western-style public-relations effort, were it not
for the exclusive use of Chinese in the display captions. Although the exhibit is intended as an in-
troduction to the construction project, we visited it after we had viewed the site because a high-level
official government delegation had preempted us. Once that delegation had gone, we assembled
around a five-by-ten-meter model of the dam and its environs as if around a conference table. A
senior engineer, through an interpreter, gave a succinct and effective introduction to civil-engineer-
ing delegates and guests alike. Both the engineer and the translator used miniature laser pointers,
no doubt made in China like virtually every other artifact that we encountered there. The country
seems soberingly self-sufficient in everything from financing a megaproject to making trinkets.
The exhibits in the museum-like hall addressed all aspects of the Three Gorges project, including
the technical details of transmitting the power over high-voltage direct- and alternating-current
transmission lines to places as far away as Shanghai. The engineer discussed environmental impact,
concluding that it was of acceptable proportions. Many significant archaeological treasures that
would otherwise be inundated were being relocated to museums, and people who were to be flooded
out of their ancestral homes were to be resettled. From the American perspective, resettlement is
one of the most controversial aspects of the dam, but in China it appears to be treated as just another
cost-benefit decision that had to be made and but another sociotechnical problem to be overcome.
Our delegation had the opportunity to see firsthand one of the new towns already built to accom-
modate people who would be displaced by the reservoir. The old town of Zigui is located about
fifty kilometers up the Yangtze from the dam site and, with the dam completed and the reservoir
filled, would be underwater. This necessitated relocating it. The new Zigui town is situated near the
dam on a hill that overlooks the reservoir, which provides scenic and recreational resources for the
townspeople and any tourists that it attracts. (After the completion of the dam, its environs were
expected to be as inundated with tourists as the Three Gorges would be with water, and there was
much anticipation that this would be a shot in the arm for the local economy. So great was the ex-
pectation of major tourism that the banks of the river beneath the dam and roads surrounding the
new Xiling Bridge were being landscaped in a style reminiscent of Berlin or Paris.)
Search WWH ::
Custom Search