This Day, That Year

Item from June 5, 1993, in China Daily: Workers unload a truck as they prepare a new site in Fengdu county, one of the first in Sichuan province to be submerged in the construction of the massive Three Gorges Project. First-phase trial filling of a cofferdam has started at the Three Gorges in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River ... The government has decided to accelerate the country's largest hydropower project. A timetable has been worked out to move as many as 1.3 million local residents within the next 15 years, said the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee under the State Council yesterday.

The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, generated 98.8 billion kilowatt-hours last year, beating the world record set by Brazil's Itaipu hydroelectric plant in 2013, according to the China Three Gorges Corporation.

The dam generates electricity, controls floods and helps to regulate shipping on the Yangtze. It continues to draw many tourists, as seen in the photo on the right, taken in September.