Pictures

How Three Gorges Dam Headlines Have Changed Over 7 Years

by on Thursday, July 22, 2010 49 comments comments

Three Gorges Dam in China discharging water.

From Tiexue: [no longer accessible]

Over the span of 7 years, watch the Three Gorges Dam change from “impenetrable” to “cannot have all hope placed on it”

Three Gorges Dam Chinese news headlines from in 2003, 2006, 2007, and 2010.

2003: Three Gorges Dam impenetrable, can withstand a once in a 10,000 year flood.
2006: Three Gorges Dam able to withstand a once in a 100 year flood.
2010: Changjiang [Yangtze] Water Resources Commission: Cannot place all hope on the Three Gorges Dam.

Multiple copies of this post were posted and now all deleted from Tiexue.

From Baidu Tieba:

Three Gorges Dam impenetrable, can withstand a once in a 10,000 year flood. 2003 June 1.
Three Gorges Dam starting this year can prevent a once in a 1000 year flood. 2007 May 8.
Three Gorges Dam able to withstand a once in a 100 year flood. 2008 October 21.
Changjiang Water Resources Commission: Cannot have excessive expectations of the Three Gorges Dam. 2010 July 20.

Another Baidu Tieba post was also deleted. At this time, a copy on Mop is still available.

Comments from Tiexue: [no longer accessible]

daveyhuang:

Haha, a special characteristic, a special characteristic [of China].

承德圣地:

Reduced by a factor of 10 each time!!!

15107310909:

A little interesting, louzhu is very clever, collecting so many years of news!

我是穷二代:

So many absurd things have happened in the past few decades, I wonder how future history books will be written, I wonder if we can see that day.

王芝一:

Just what the Three Gorges is like, I won’t say.

Different people have different views!

wuhainanren:

When it was being built, idealism guided thought. When it is being used, the concept was changed by realism. If God gets angry, the Three Gorges Dam’s’ functions can be reduced tenfold.

522058929:

You can trust it or not, either way the Three Gorges Dam is there and doesn’t require you to trust it. Downstream there are hundreds of thousands of masses all depending on it, so are you unable to trust it even now?

警察看我都突突:

7 of the 9 Three Gorges Dam outlets have already been opened, and in a few more days we will know, so pay attention to the follow-up report.

brucesu:

At least the trend [in reporting] is good, they are taking one step at a time towards the truth.

西瓜皮100:

They said 1998 was a once-in-a-hundred-years flood, and now just after 12 years, there is yet another once-in-a-hundred-years flood. Ridiculous.

powinner:

Propaganda necessarily contains exaggeration, but the benefits of the Three Gorges Dam is obvious.

gb5255:

I think the Three Gorges Dam Project was voted on by a show of hands at the National People’s Congress, and it should have already been obvious that there was a problem when over half of the irrigation experts did not raise their hands. I don’t know exactly if this project is good or bad, but I know that one, it is a waste of resources and two, it has ruined many historical sites. It seems today that this project really was just for the policy-makers to show off something great, always wanting to make some political achievement while they are in office that people will talk about, but without respecting the facts. If there some other problem happens again with the Three Gorges Dam this year, then it will truly go down in history in infamy.

This photo taken on Sunday May 14, 2006 and released by China's official Xinhua news agency, shows a distant view of the giant dam of the Three Gorges hydropower project under construction on the Yangtze River. There are less than 3,000 cubic meters of concrete left to be placed before the dam is finally completed on May 20, nine months ahead of the schedule, Xinhua said. The dam is situated near the Xiling Gorge, the eastern most gorge of the Three Gorges on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Du Huaju)

Propaganda necessarily contains exaggeration. chinaSMACK personals.

  • Keninchina

    Yes! finally, im first to call SOFA!

  • http://www.makeyourownpheromones.com Michael

    Ha! Second.

    This comment too short my ass

  • Zardoz

    Obviously it can be solved with more guns.

    –
    The gun is good. The penis is evil.

    • carlstar

      Zardoz would be pleased

  • john

    There are different failure criteria: Many structures are designed to survive 1/10000 year earthquakes/floods without excess damage, but will experience functional failure with lower return periods (i.e. a dam might be allowed to overtop during a 1/1000 year return period flood, but not catastropically fail during a 1/10,000 year return period). Copying and pasting from non-technical news publications doesn’t mean a whole lot.

    There’s no way that this dam will catastrophically fail under a 1/100 year flood.

    Designing for a 1/10,000 year event is pretty standard; I would guess for high profile projects like the three gorges dam 1/10,000 could be considered a little low, even.

    • http://www.lovelovechina.com Crystal

      What I really don’t understand is – “Where is the guarantee that the “one-in-10,000 years” flood/earthquake/tsunami wouldn’t happen the very next year? Aren’t there other, more clear dimensions?

      • aquadraht

        No there are no. There is no guarantee that no meteor comes down and hits your head. Yet engineers have to set reasonable limits ensuring levels of confidence. And clearly, there have to be disaster plans in place for worst case scenarios.

  • Pirx

    If ex-PM Li Peng was dead he would now turn in his urn. 3 Gorges was what he wanted to be remembered for. Soviet educated hydropower engineer, his wife, if I remember correctly, with Huaneng Power Development Corp. The numerous hydropower projects incl. this one certainly contributed to Li Pengs son being able to stuff himself on abalone in Singapore.

  • ShanghaiSteve

    Thank you for finally posting an interesting article.

  • 美大侠

    ah, the consequences of calling something “Impenetrable” or “Unsinkable” or “Unstoppable” etc.

    • Brother River Crab

      see: unsinkable, Titanic.

      • 美大侠

        exactly my point

    • Tadd

      I’m “unshaggable”!!!!
      *waits*

      • 美大侠

        fat chicks need love too…

  • FYIADragoon

    What a waste of a beautiful area. Hats off to China once again.

    • john

      It would really look beautiful through thick coal smoke.

      It sucks that they had to build the dam, but they need to get energy from somewhere.

      • Teacher in China

        Agreed with that 100%. I remember when I first arrivedin China in 2005, August – the local stores never had cold coke, and never had their coolers turned on. I thought “Oh, Chinese people must not like cold drinks”. Later I learned that, at least in that summer, people had been directed not to use too much electricity, and turn off coolers in stores or something. Not sure if it’s a true story or not, but the last few years all the stores have always had their coolers on.

    • Supreme_Leader

      Couldn’t they have at least added a water filer to the dam? Clean up the Willy Wonka chocolatey gooey flow?

  • http://www.borrowedculture.com Fabrizio

    Oh well, numbers are relative anyway.

  • The-last-emperor

    The Dam is like the Titanic, Not even god can mess with it

  • Octavian

    Hope it breaks.

    • aquadraht

      I bet you do. As many of the immature crapheads writing here. Indeed, all big hydropower projects have their drawbacks, yet China is in urgent need of the 18GW producing capacity, and will need further big hydro projects. And the dam is now showing its capability to hold back a major flood. As to the 100yrs, 10,000yrs etc. figures, it seems to me that the original author confused expected floods with structural stability. There are different criteria when designing large hydropower projects, and journalists tend to confuse them or just pick impressive figures.

  • Brother River Crab

    They are hedging their bets now we’re getting close to 2012.

    • The-last-emperor

      Dude, have you heard of “constructive comments”?

  • rastamann

    Fuck you very much, do you realize how much devastation that will cause, not to mention the loss of life,its the Yangtze river were talking about isnt it,how many cities and people depend on it? GROW UP!!You know that there are floods all over the show right now and you hope a dam breaks!!how stupid are you really?please,or maybe you are so retarded and sick you …..FUCK YOU!

  • LongTian

    Ok, you’re obviously not an engineer. I am, and I can tell you that engineers do the exact opposite of what you said. They put in safety margins and understate ability just so people won’t expect more than the engineer or his work can actually do.

  • http://www.地球.cn Kedafu

    I will give yall,

    3 damn good reasons….

    stand by….

    五毛党

  • Mike

    All developed western nations have stopped building dams because it is against the nature to stop the flow of the water. The project itself was a mistake in the beginning, and yet with oppositions and disapproval, the government still forced the issue to build the stupid dam. The building of the three gorges dam have changed natural environments around the region, as well as shifted temperature reaching as far as Shanghai. The flood is just the beginning, sooner or later they will have to destroy the dam. Good job CCP.

    • rastamann

      What solution do you offer to the power deficit?OK its a stupid dam but you are a stupid person,how do you expect China with its cities and industries to sustain itself (energy wise)?

      • Mike

        Are you serious? The amount of money they will have to put in to later fix all the mess will far exceed anything else. Do a little bit research yourself, read what Huang Wan Li wrote about building the Three Gorges Dam, and why he was so much against building the dam in the first place, and he was an expert, received numerous awards for the area of expertise. His last words before his death was if the CCP approved the building of the dam, PM Li Peng would knee down before the Gate of Death, and forever be a sinner to China and its people. Those were powerful words, and I don’t think you understand the magnitude of his action.

        When I was in Shanghai last summer, the temperature was around 40 degrees, some people directly blamed the temperature shift to the construction of the dam. 10 years ago, the temperature in Shanghai was never that high, perhaps for a day or two, but never the entire summer, especially considering the fact the city itself is right next to the sea.

        There are other ways to solve energy issues, but using taxpayers’ money and forcing the issue to build a dam that would alter the natural environment perhaps cause permanent damage to the nearby region is despicable and reprehensible.

      • Mike

        Read this interview, and understand why he opposed to the building of the dam.

        http://www.threegorgesprobe.org/pi/documents/three_gorges/Yangtze/ch15.html

    • raysimlee

      Developed nations?
      The west has totally different geographic and demographic make up to China. The west love to criticize non white nations and claim its culture as ‘civilized’ while totally ignorant of other human civilization and culture. It is time the west learn that there are other cultures and ethnic groups. Killing and destruction is not the civilized behavior. Forcing ones will and idealism on other with deadly force is barbaric.

      Coming back to the dam. This is clean energy quite different to the western behavior of using fossil fuel. BP’s three month uncontrolled leak is worse than the 30 years of total pollution China ever created. In this thirty years the west pump into the atmosphere more than 3 times that of China. Remember China has more population.

      • Mike

        Read the link I provided and understand why the three gorges dam was a mistake in the first place. Experts have done extensive amount of research and visits to the geographic situation to where Three gorges are, and all evidences pointed that the Dam should not have been built.

        I am not saying we should follow the west or anything like that, but if there are good things we can learn from them then we should. Nevertheless, they are developed nations for a reason, and China is still developing. There is a difference. Stop trying to twist what I said, and look at the evidences on the Three Gorges and understand why it is a disaster, and why this article states that we should not put any hope on the dam after 10 years of construction.

  • raysimlee

    Do you regard pro Chinese comment as duplicated?

  • milkfiddle

    Damn it! 2012 is coming quite soon… in fact, sooner than before.

    • aquadraht

      and after 2012 comes 2013

  • Typhoon

    I felt like this is a pretty typical act of the gov

  • jonny scram

    this damn dam also becomes our country most dangerous target for foreign enemies… imagine what happens if a missile hits it… then it WILL BE a 10thousand year flood!

  • manusan

    I’m afraid one day it will be call “the Tchernobyl Dam”.

  • Dildo Baggins

    How is it that a country that graduates more than 600,000 engineers a year, could build a dam and fill it with so much water that it cannot stop a flood, that threatens more than 400 million people in 4 provinces? note: the USA only graduates approximately 30,000 engineers per year.

    Is there no feedback between those in charge and the designers? was there not a troubleshooting stage?

    Didn’t it take almost 5 years to fill up the lake!!!!!

  • aquadraht

    The dam does not look bad for anybody familiar to energy technologies, and your post is looking stupid like most from you. Life downstream the Sanxia area was more risky before the dam.

  • rastamann

    Your point is? I was referring to what some idiot that hopes the dam breaks,

    Octavian
    Friday, July 23, 2010 at 9:25 am
    Hope it breaks.

    whats your point teletubby?

Personals @ chinaSMACK - Meet people, make friends, find lovers? Don't be so serious!»