Three Gorges Dam

The Three Gorges Dam was completed in 2012 after nearly two decades of construction, a concrete gravity dam 2,335 metres long and 181 metres high whose generators give it the largest installed capacity of any power station in the world. Ships pass through a five-stage lock system taking three to four hours, or use the ship lift completed in 2016, which carries vessels up to three thousand tonnes in a water-filled caisson raised about a hundred and thirteen metres in around forty minutes, the largest such lift ever built. Viewing platforms at Tanziling and beside the locks overlook both. The project's costs, in displacement, sediment and ecology, remain widely debated.

What you actually see

• The dam wall - two and a third kilometres of concrete across the Yangtze.
• The ship lift - vessels raised a hundred metres in a water-filled caisson.
• The five-stage locks - ships stepping up or down over several hours.
• The Tanziling viewpoint - the overview of the whole structure.

When to go

April to June and September to November; summer haze reduces visibility from the viewpoints. Water discharge, when the spillways open, is a spectacle in the flood season but is not scheduled for visitors. Passports are required for entry.

Honest expectations

Entry requires a passport and security screening, and the site is a controlled area. Haze frequently obscures the view. Watching a full lock or lift cycle takes hours. Interpretation presents the project uncritically.

Nearby

Yichang lies east; the gorges begin upstream.