In the top image, the dam’s main wall appears as a thin, buff-colored line crossing the water. Landsat 5 acquired the bottom image on April 17, 1987, several years before construction on the dam began. Landsat 7 acquired the top image on November 7, 2006, after the main wall was complete. These images show the Yangtze River in the vicinity of the Three Gorges Dam (lower right). The reservoir was anticipated to submerge ecologically and culturally important sites in the three gorges-Qutang, Wu Xia, and Xiling-that were the dam’s namesake. Like the river itself, the dam appears to be a mixed blessing: the reservoir was expected to submerge about 632 square kilometers (244 square miles) of land and force the relocation of more than a million people. To protect some 15 million residents and 3.7 million acres (roughly 14,970 square kilometers) in the lower Yangtze floodplains, China began construction on the Three Gorges Dam in 1994. In the twentieth century alone, Chinese authorities estimated, the river claimed the lives of 300,000 people. Although it meets the water needs of millions of people, the river regularly overflows its banks.

The longest river in Asia, the Yangtze River brings mixed blessings to China.

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