The Three Gorges decameter on China ’s Yangtze River , pictured here , is one of the domain ’s corking engineering marvel . It ’s just one of many structure people have built to transform and hold China ’s massive river for the past 2,400 years .
Foreign Policy ’s Suzanne Merkelsonhas a fascinating picture essayabout how China ’s dekametre projects and pee pollution are remaking the nation ’s landscape painting .
During its grammatical construction , the Three Gorges Dam in the Hubei province was world ’s fully grown consumer of earth , stone , and concrete . It ’s also the most flood - resistant complex of its kind , with an enormous capacity for water flood discharge ( you ’re seeing one of its biggest discharges ever , during 2010 floods ) . 1.3 million mass had to move when the dekameter diverted water to a new location .
Read moreat Foreign Policy
All images via Getty
Merkelson explains :
One of the oldest surviving illustration of China ’s water diversionary attack projection is the Grand Canal , which in some sections date back most 2,400 years . The canal link Beijing with Hangzhou , 800 miles to the Dixieland . Its original function was to transport rice , and parts of it are still in heavy use today . By the 19th century , the canal come down into disrepair thanks to neglected sustentation , a major flood , and heavy defilement .
This effigy is of a police boat navigating a lake full of drivel after the recent earthquakes , near Zipingpu Dam on the Yangtze River . Merkelson write :
The Yangtze River — the earth ’s third - long and China ’s main watercourse — begins in the Tibetan plateau and locomote eastwards across China , provide unused pee for 400 million masses before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai .
These gargantuan projects often bury Chinese chronicle as well as deracinate citizen from their homes . Merkelson explain :
Among the gazillion displaced by China ’s water undertaking are the 22,000 former citizens of Gongtan town in Chongqing municipality . The 1,700 - year - old town had some of the most well - preserved ancient residential architecture in the Yangtze River area . Gongtan was wholly submerge after the Pengshui hydropower plant was constructed along the Wujiang River , one of the Yangtze ’s tributary . The town was rebuilt about a nautical mile away .
In this picture , a Gongtan resident make a motion Edward Durell Stone from historical edifice to the town ’s new locating .
Here is a view of the unbelievable amounts of drivel that float in some parts of the Beijing canal .
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