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Week In China: Three Gorges Dam
BBC NEWS, CHINA
November 1, 2012: As China prepares for a new generation of leaders to take power, the BBC is spending a week on the road looking at both the challenges ahead for the world's most populous nation and the advances it has made.
On day five, Martin Patience looks at both the triumph and the human cost of China's massive hydropower project, the Three Gorges Dam.
Day Five: Three Gorges Dam
Rising from the waters of the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges Dam stands more than 40 storeys high. The scale and scope of the project is stunning.
The dam stretches for over 2km (1.25 miles), took tens of thousands of workers over a decade to build and cost more than $40bn (£25bn). Designed to control the flooding of the mighty river, the dam produces vast amounts of electricity - the equivalent of 11 nuclear power stations.
It is one of the most impressive feats of civil engineering anywhere in the world and stands as a symbol of China's progress over the last 20 years. Unsurprisingly, the Communist Party has hailed the mega-project as a triumph. But the dam has come at an enormous environmental and human cost.
With a project on this scale and with national pride at stake, Beijing was never going to let anyone stand in the way. More than a million people were forced to relocate when the dam created a lake 600km in length that submerged villages, towns and small cities. There was no discussion, no debate, just orders.
New towns and villages sprung up close to the Yangtze when the Three Gorges migrants left their old homes. One of those now living in a breezeblock apartment building perched on a hill is farmer Fu Xiancai. He fully supports China's development and believes that the transformation of the country has benefited the people - but his story reveals the dark side of China's development.
Mr Fu says that he never received the compensation he was due for relocating. When he complained to local officials he says he was beaten viciously, leaving him paralyzed. "If ordinary people can pursue their rights and officials follow the rule of law, then this will become a better country," he said, lying in his bed. He now requires round-the-clock care.
Over the last decade, China has developed at a rate unprecedented in human history. But the way that millions of people have been pushed aside by the Communist Party for these projects has generate enormous resentment.
People in China are now becoming used to being better off - many Chinese are no longer prepared to be pushed around like they were in the past. For the country's new leaders that means ruling a population less likely to follow the party line.
