Golden waterway

Between the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze Riv-er lies an important artificial waterway with a long history: the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The 1,700-km-long canal starts from Beijing in the north and ends in Hangzhou in the south, running through Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang and spanning across the Haihe, Yellow, Huaihe, Yangtze and Qiantang rivers.

It is the golden waterway that once connected China's southern areas with the northern.[1] The section north of the Yellow River has been out of use for a long time, but the one that runs from Shandong through Jiangsu to Zhejiang sill plays an important role in transpor-tation. The rebuilt canal is an important waterway and, along with other traffic channels, helps transport coal from the north to the south and grains from the south to the north.

But for present day China, the 10,000-li-long Yangtze River is the real “golden waterway." It is the country's lon-gest river, and originates in the Jianggendiru glaciers in the Geladandong Snow Mountain of the Tanggula Range in Qinghai Province. It is called the Tuotuo River in the upper reaches, after which it is referred to as the Tongtian and Jin-sha rivers. It is called by its better-known name after reach-ing Yibin. With a length of 6,300 km, the Yangtze River is the third longest in the world and the longest in Asia. Yangtze's 4,529-km-long upper reaches begins from Yichang in Hubei, its 931-km-long middle reaches stretches from Yichang to Hukou in Jiangxi, from where its 840-km-long lower reaches runs down to the estuary. The Yangtze River basin is 1.8 mil-lion sq km, accounting for nearly one-fifth of China's total land area.

The basin, with many river branches, enjoys plentiful rainfall and abundant water resources. The river transports about 1 trillion cubic meters of water to the sea every year, about 17.5 times that of the Yellow River, and accounts for more than one-third of the national total. The Yangtze has more than 700 tributaries, 10 of which have a water flow of more than 1,000 cubic meters a second each.

The Yangtze resembles a major traffic artery. The com-bined length of China's navigable rivers, excluding the Yangtze, is less than half of the total length of the longest river. The main flow of the Yangtze, for example-from the estuary to Yibin in the upper reaches-is suitable for navi-gation all year around. Its stretch fter Nanjing is open to seagoing, vessels with a shipping load of 25,000 tons, the one between Wuhan and Nanjing is open to 500-ton segoing vessels or steamers. From Yichang to Wuhan 3,000-ton river steamers can use it for transport, and from Chongqing to Yichang 1,500-ton ferries can travel on its water. Important branches of the Yangtze such as Hanjiang, Xiangjiang, Ganji-ang, Jialing, Minjiang, Fujiang and Wujiang rivers are major waterways in themselves. As a transport channel, Yangtze has been a continuous impetus for the economic growth through the areas it flows.[2]

But the Yangtze has another side to it. Its basin has long suffered from the most serious floods in Chinese history, es-pecially the areas in its middle and lower reaches. Four mas-sive floods killed tens of thousands of people in last century alone and caused huge economic losses. Thus, flood pre-vention and water harnessing in areas along its middle and lower reaches have been one of the top priorities of China's water-conservancy work.

Besides, development and utilization of hydraulic energy in the Yangtze is far from enough. The main flow of the river and its branches have a combined potential of generating 268 million kW of hydraulic energy, the highest capacity in the world that could meet half of China's total hydraulic energy need. But the hydraulic energy generated today is less than one-tenth of the potential, and only one hydro-power station-Gezhou Dam Hydropower Station with an installed capacity of 2.715 million kW-has been built on the trunk of the river.

The Three Gorges in the upper reaches of the Yangtze Riv-er, surrounded by high and steep mountains, has a river fall of nearly 200 m along its 200-km-long stretch. Furthermore, plenty of water in the Yangtze and its huge hydraulic power potential offer favorable conditions for engineering con-struction there. The Three Gorges is thus a rare site, highly suitable for a large-scale hydraulic power station.

The Three Gorges Hydropower Dam is under construction at Sanshuiping in the Xiling Gorge. It consists of a barrage, hydropower station and navigation buildings. With a height of 185 m, the dam has helped create a huge reservoir with a capacity of holding nearly 40 billion cubic meters of wa-ter, and will play a very big role in contolling floods in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze. The hydropower station has a total installed capacity of 18.2 million kW and is capable of generating 84.7 billion kWh of hydropower a year that can be spplied to neighboring Chongqing, Sich-uan and the central part of the country, as well as the easten and northern areas, to boost economic development. The Three Corges Poiec will fundamentally improve conditions of sichuan's navigable rivers, reduce transport costs and en-hance navigation capacity to a great extent.

The Three Gorges Projet is a super large scale hydro-power scheme, which offers comprehensive benefits such as food prevention, power generation, navigation and en-vironmental protection. The Three Gorges Project was for-mally launched in December 1994, and the river closure was accomplished in November 1997, marking the end of the Phase I. The project is scheduled for completion in 2009.

According to China's development plans, the Yangtze River Basin is one of the key regions to be developed and would enjoy equal status with the coastal areas. At pres- ent, many of the ports along the Yangtze River have been opened. Cities along the river that rely on its abundant resources and enjoy the fantastic transport channel it pro-vides have gathered a strong momentum for development. The development of the Pudong area in Shanghai and the construction of the Three Gorges Dam have provided fresh impetus to the economy of the areas along the river.

Note: 

[1] Kuimen is situated at the entrance to the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, with high mountains on both sides of the river making it look like half-opened doors. Kuimen is generally considered the "grandest gorge in the world."

[2] The Tiger Leaping Gorge, the deepest and narrowest gorge of the Yangtze River, startles the world with its extraordinarily torrential flow.