Gezhouba Dam Guide

Gezhouba Water Conservancy Project, located in Yichang City, Hubei Province, was first constructed in 1970 and finished in 1988. The project is just over 2,600 meters long and 50 meters high and divides the Yangtze River into three sections. It consists of three navigation locks, two hydro electric power stations and several sluice-gates. The project can store 1.58 billion cubic meters and discharge 110,000 cubic meters per second and the two power stations serve several local provinces. There are also three ship locks that allow passenger or cargo ships to pass through. Viewing this site will surely be an experience worth seeing.

The Gezhouba Dam Project is a cascade which regulates the tailwater flow from the TGP and improves the conditions between the two dams. After completion of the TGP, the annual guaranteed output of electricity from the Gezhouba Hydro Power Plant will be increased by about 430,000kw. Therefore the two projects considered as twins through thick and thin. The dam has several sluice-gates, or ship locks. Some sluice-gates are used for accumulating water for irrigation during fraught seasons; some function for generating electricity. After rushing out of Nanjin Pass, the Yangtze River slows down and windens from 300 meters to about 2,000 meters. The main channel here was closed off on January 4,1981，and navigation and power generation began in June the same year, marking the completion of the first phase of the key project.

Apart from economic benefit, the Gezhouba project is a boon to tourism, With its overall completion, a number of gardens will appear along this section of the river together with treeshaded roads at the sites of the three channels. Chinese and foreign travelers visiting the Three Gorges will be tempted to include Guzhouba project in their itinerary. They will find this man-made wonder a feast to the eye and the inagination, a monument to human ingenuity in taming China’s longest river.

• The City Wall
• Chinese Sturgeon Museum
• Gezhouba Dam
• Three Gorges Dam
• The Yangtze River