This Day, That Year

Item from March 25, 1982, in China Daily: An electrician works on insulators of power transmission lines over the Yangtze River. The construction site of China's biggest hydraulic engineering project, the Gezhouba dam and power station on the Yangtze, resounded to the rumbling of heavy machinery as the second stage of construction went into full swing ... helping to build the foundation for the 2,600-meter-long dam across China's biggest river. Gezhouba will generate 14,300 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, more than three times the electricity generated in the whole of China in 1949.

Gezhouba Dam was completed in 1988 after 17 years. It was the first major water control project on the Yangtze River's trunk stream and played a large role in power generation, flood control and navigation.

Gezhouba is an important part of the Three Gorges Dam and helped lay the foundations for the world's largest hydropower project.