More Chinese dams...

Dams in China are in the news again, with China Daily reporting that the blocking of the river has begun to allow for construction of the Xiluodu Dam in the Jinsha River near the Yunnan - Sichuan border. Construction on what will be the second largest dam in the country began in late 2005 and is one of four hydropower stations planned for the Jinsha River, a tributary of the Yangtze. The total energy output from the four dams will be twice that of the Three Gorges Project.

While this project hasn't attracted worldwide attention (and condemnation) accorded the Three Gorges dam, it was postponed in 2005 after the builders tried to defy and order from the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) to conduct a mandatory environmental impact assessment. Apparently SEPA gave the $5 billion project the green light in late 2005.

Another interesting article I came across discusses the 'dam fever' gripping southwestern China, and many of the sometimes successful efforts by NGO's to bring it under control.

On a side note, there are apparently many small 'cottage-industry' dams being constructed across China on smaller rivers for local power generation. The photo is of one under construction near Emei Mountiain in Sichuan that I stumbed across while hiking in 2006.

China to 'build' world's largest national park (?)

China is creating a new national park in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the country's northwest, according to an article in China Daily. The article says it will become the world's largest national park, replacing Yellowstone. Errr, wrong. Yellowstone isn't even in the top 10 largest American parks (Wrangell - St. Elias is the largest), and the largest in the world is in Greenland. Poor job by the quality control department.

The park is to be an extension of Kanas Geological Park, and the extended border will incorporate 10 times the land of the original park (to 10,000 km2). Let's hope that this park won't fall victim to some of the problems with existing geological parks in China...the problems of poor public education, inadequate protection, and overdevelopment to lure in the mighty tourist Yuan. For more info on some of these problems take a look at this article from Focus on Geography. China has been putting a lot of effort recently into naming parks and having grand openings, but many (not all) of these parks don't amount to much other than tourist sites with a peripheral interest in preservation and eduation.

Same story, different spin.

Stoies about environmental issues surrounding the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing appear online today in several places. CNN has an article suggesting that the air pollution problem has not really been tackled and time may be running out to do something about it. The IOC is even suggesting that some events may have to be delayed if conditions are too bad on the day.

Meanwhile, China Daily are reporting that the United National Environment Program is lauding the organizers for 'greening' the games. The games are apparently a catalyst for the acceleration of environmental programs across the city. Sure, the article does mention air pollution is still an issue, but is much more confident there is still time to fix it.

Just some random China photos...

I'm bored and was going through a lot of my China photos as I'm supposed to be writing an article (more of a photojournal really) on the Three Gorges area for the magazine Focus on Geography. So I just thought I'd post a few photos that won't be going in any article.

This photo is from 2005 and is of a riverbank shipyard about 30 miles upstream from the dam. It will be completely underwater by now, as will the house.












Polished rock steps and sidewalks are very common in China, and are absolutely treacherous when it rains. There is so much polished rock being used in construction and as ornamentation that I really wonder where it all comes from. There must be entire mountains missing in sections of China!


Along the banks of the Yangtze River in Yichang, 20 miles downstream from the Three Gorges Dam. This is where many of the tourist boats tie-up overnight before going through the gorges.

17th CPC meeting heads up

Every 5 years the Congress of the Communist Party of China is held. Whenever you hear about '5 year Plans' you're hearing about policy created at this meeting. Right now there isn't much going on other than hype. It only happens every 5 years do it'd kind of a big deal.

http://english.cpcnews.cn/ is where you can get all of the information available. A 'media center' has just opened in Beijing to support the media, both domestic and foreign. Kind of like a hotel/convention center but just for this congress. This year the meeting seems like a bigger deal than usual because a large number of senior party members will be appointed to some very high positions. I would go into the messy politics of China when it comes to the consolidation of power on the part of the Current President, but Blogger is already blocked in China and I don't want the Chinese police knocking on my door tomorrow. If you want to get an idea of how Chinese politics works just take a good close look at the (now jailed) Ex-Mayor of Shanghai (wikipedia will help). But I digress

i figured at an event as important and encompassing as the 17th CCPC they would at the very least gloss over environmental issues. So far the only document provided is the 'Communique of the Sixth Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee', so it's dated, but provides the most basic, bare bones goals of the Party. Kind of. It's vague and aggrandizing, but it's something. So keep on eye on it.

on another note, this website is blocked, but I can still make updates through my gmail account, kind of weird.

and yet another note: let me know what you want me to keep on eye on. I'm planning some trips and not only do I need suggestions of where to go, but what to look out for. If you do this class again, or anything like it, i'd love to send you some pictures or whatever information i might be able to pass on.

Potential catastrophe at Three Gorges

China Daily has an interesting article outlining some of the already recognized ecological issues associated with the Three Gorges dam and reservoir. In Chongqing municipality 36 km of riverbank has collapsed.

"We have to make concerted efforts to attain the dual goals of constructing a first-rate hydraulic project and making it into a top-level showcase for the environment," said Wang, "we will work harder to turn the Three Gorges Reservoir Area into an environmentally-friendly society."

The government has invested heavily in programs designed to restore and conserve the ecology of the Three Gorges area in recent years, including 12 billion yuan (about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars) spent on trying to harness geological disasters such as landslides. It has also closed or relocated 1,500 manufacturing ventures, constructed more than 70 sewage disposal and waste treatment plants and resettled about 70,000 people from disaster-prone areas.

Landslides are certainly apparent along the banks of the river, and the engineers / geologists really should have anticipated the loosely compact soil would be prone to failure. I'm not sure how any trained geoscientist could have missed this as a major, major impact. Going back to the proposed Tiger Leaping Gorge dam and reservoir...the government needs to be extremely careful there as the soil appear much more unstable, and the potential size of land failures much greater. Luckily so far none of the landslides have been large enough to cause wave-induced damage, although certainly some of the older landslides in the area would prove catastrophic should they happen today.

Burma through Chinese media

While the rest of the world and its new agencies are leading with stories of the crisis in Burma, Xinhua is fairly mute.

The one story contains the following quote ' As a neighbor, China is greatly concerned about the situation in Myanmar, and we hope that all parties in Myanmar show restraint and properly handle the current situation," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular press conference.

Jiang called on parties concerned in Myanmar to prevent the situation from becoming more complicated and spreading, and not to affect the peace and stability in Myanmar and the surrounding region.

China expects Myanmar could commit itself to improving the living condition of people, safeguarding the rapprochement among different ethnic groups so to resume peace and stability as soon as possible, said Jiang.'

Nothing in the article gives real detail about the players in the standoff, and no mention of protester deaths is made. China daily repeats the same article.