Begun in 1994 and completed in 2009, the Three Gorges Dam is the largest water conservancy project ever undertaken by man. The Dam is located near Sandouping, which is in the middle of the Xiling Gorge, the longest of the Three Gorges.

The Three Gorges Dam is 2,335 meters long, 185 meters high, 18 meters wide on the top and 130 meters wide at the bottom. The dam has raised the river to a level of 175 meters above sea level, creating a 600 kilometers long reservoir with storage capacity of 39.9 billion cubic meters extending from the dam site all the way to Chongqing. 570,000 acres of farmland, villages, and cities in 19 counties have been flooded, causing 1.5 million people to be relocated.

The estimate for construction of the project is 26 billion US dollars. The building of this huge dam was for the purpose of flood control, electricity, navigation, and irrigation.