Location: Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei province
Height: 181 meters
Expected investment: 203.9 billion renminbi (US$24.65 billion)
Number of migrants: 2 million
Installed power generation capacity: 18.2 gigawatts
Functions: Flood control, power generation, improved navigation
Coordinates: 30.82679 N 111.00727 E, Terrain Elevation: 75.00 meters

Three Three Gorges Dam project, the world’s largest engineering undertaking, is planned for completion in 2009. The river will rise to a final 575 feet above sea level, submerging existing towns along the way and flooding the narrow gorges of the Yangtze’s tributaries-old problem of devastating Yangtze floods.

Phase Two of the Three Gorges Dam project was completed in June 2003; and the river has risen to 443 feet above sea level. With the rising of the water, new areas of the river’s landscape have been opened for navigation, allowing tourists easier access to the beautiful scenery within the Lesser Three Gorges. You’ll witness firsthand some of the river’s renowned sites and be among the first to see the newly-accessible vistas of the Lesser Three Gorges.