JPA331Y1 Lecture : JPA331Y Jan 17th Notes
Document Summary
Three gorges dam: hydro electric dam that spans the yangtze river. Building of the dam has been very controversial. Government says: helps produce electricity, a green project, it"s hydro-electric and energy efficient than burning fuel/coal, etc. Gov says: increases shipping capacity of the yangtze river as bigger ships can now go through, and also reduces potential of floods. Its also a way of showcasing chinese engineering. Employs a lot of people around the region. However: attracted much oppositions, for example, the dam flooded acheological and cultural sites, all buried under water now. There are also people living on the river banks, their homes would be flooded and forced to move to other places, a forced eviction process basically. So when you saw beautiful houses shown to tourists, prof doubts those houses really for the relocatees. Those houses were model hosues, probaly built to show political leaders by local leaders. Behind the surface, the reality is much worse probaly.
