As a saying goes: “The endless Yangtze River never stops rolling its waves eastward, with vessels running on it carrying coal and oil to everywhere”, the Three Gorges Hydroelectric Project, with the ultimate goal of benefiting a half population of China, has begun to realize its originally-planned “Three Gorges effects”.

　　“In order to improve the course in the upstream, the Yangtze River must be dammed to conserve water, thus the ships can run against the current and the waterpower be used.” In 1919, Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of modern China, was the first person to propose constructing the Three Gorges project on the Yangtze River in his book The International Development of China. Five years later, in his speech titled “People’s Livelihood", he talked about installing electric generator of 30 million horsepower at the Three Gorges.

　　Mr. Sun’s dream has been realized one hundred years later. Moreover, the Three Gorges project has created some other effects beyond his expectation.

　　In the Three Gorges Left Bank Hydro Power Plant, gigantic circular platforms are quite eye-catching.

　　“We are now standing right on the hydraulic turbine set of 0.7 million kilowatts. It is the heart of the power station, with tens-of-meters’ height.” said Mr. Li Zhixiang, the deputy director of the Three Gorges Power Plant. He then put a coin upright on a platform, and it didn’t fall. “This is an easy way to test if the generator set is in normal operation. If the coin falls, the set is not running properly.”

　　To Chinese people, a hydraulic turbine set of 0.7 million kilowatts was considered an unattainable dream. “To trade the market for technology, and then use technology to expand the market”. It was a significant decision made by the Chinese government since the Project was initiated with the purpose of developing the domestic equipment manufacturing industry on the basis of large key projects.

　　Left Bank Hydro Power Plant once invited bids from the other countries for the generating set manufacturing, because, at that time, China was far behind the rest of the world in this respect since we could only manufacture the hydraulic turbine set of 0.32 million kilowatts.

　　Mr. Li Zhixiang still remembered vividly what happened ten years ago, that was in June, 2003, when water was impounded to generate electricity for the first time. “At that time, the first imported hydroelectric generator set was installed and in the debugging phase. But it vibrated violently during the operation. Faced with this severe problem, our Chinese specialists decided to stop the set immediately and completely before finding out the solution. “We were very anxious since we didn’t expect that the imported equipment would malfunction in China, and meanwhile, we realized that we must possess advanced technology of our own to produce hydraulic turbines.” said Li.

　　Hard work paid off. After about a month of careful study and repetitive experiments, the specialists found the cause of the vibration.

　　To improve the design defect of the imported generator set, the constructors of the Three Gorges project made a resolute decision to discard the “X” pattern of the vanes designed by the foreign manufactures, and, for the first time in the world, applied the “L”-pattern vane to the large-scale hydraulic turbines. Thanks to this measure, the vibration was eliminated and moreover, the conversion efficiency of the hydro energy was increased.

　　It is only about one kilometer from the Left Bank Hydro Power Plant to the Right Bank Hydro Power Plant. In this one-kilometer distance, China’s the technology of the hydraulic turbine set spanned over thirty years. In earlier time, among the fourteen hydraulic turbine sets in Left Bank Hydro Power Plant, only half of them were designed and manufactured by Chinese. Later, however, among the twelve sets in the Right Bank Hydro Power Plant, there were eight made by Chinese with higher-level Independent Intellectual Property Right. And the domestication rate of the six sets in underground power plant is even higher.

　　It took Chinese people seven years to cross over the thirty-year technological gap. The Three Gorges project gave rise to the hydroelectric equipments manufacturing in China. “The Three Gorges project has received thumbs-up from many foreign experts who came to visit.” said Li.

　　So far, the project has created many world-class No. 1 records, which include the hydropower station with the largest installed capacity, the ship lifts with the largest scale, the greatest sluice with the maximal flood carrying capacity, and the inland ship lock with the most steps and the highest total water head… “Altogether, the project won over one hundred world records.” said Cao Guangjin, who has been working at the Three Gorges since he was twenty one years old and is now the chairman of China Three Gorges Corporation and the deputy director of the State Council Gorges Project Construction Committee. In his opinion, the project has elevated the hydroelectric construction technology to an unprecedented standard.

　　On October 15, 2013, in the central control room of the Three Gorges Power Plant, the digital record showed that the upstream water level reached 170.4 meters, the downstream water level 65.07 meters, and an accumulative total of 700.10 billion degrees’ electricity was generated.

　　Currently, the Three Gorges Power Plant possesses thirty-two generator sets of 0.7 kilowatts and another two 50,000- kilowatt hydraulic turbine sets, which adds up to 22.50 million kilowatts in total. Boasting of having the largest installed capacity in the world; it equals six and a half Gezhouba water power plants and ten Dayawan nuclear power plants.

　　The general public has no concept about what 0.7 million kilowatts means. According to the experts, a hydraulic turbine set of 0.7 million kilowatts generates electricity of 200 kilowatt-hours per second, and in one hour it can generate electricity that can support 300 families for one year. That “The Yangtze River flows with coal and oil” is a vivid metaphorical description of the great navigation benefits created by the Three Gorges project.

　　On both sides of the Three Gorges Dam, more than ten ultrahigh pressure lines extend towards different directions, continuously providing electricity to the central and east part of China, as well as the other areas like Guangdong Province and Chongqing City, which helps resolve the predicament of power shortage of many places and provide clean power for the production and people’s lives.

　　It is assumed that if every KWH of electric energy can bring 8 RMB yuan of average output value, the whole Three Gorges Power Plant can create an annual wealth of over 670 billion RMB yuan if it can produce 84.7 billion KWH of electricity every year as originally designed. But in 2012, the Three Gorges Hydropower Station produced 98.1 billion KWH of hydro power, which amounted to 11.4% of China’s total hydroelectric power generation.

　　Another calculation shows that from the year 2003 to 2012, if the total volume of electricity generated by the Three Gorges Hydropower Station was counted as 629.1 billion KWH, 271 million tons of standard coal must be burnt in order to obtain the same amount of energy, which means that the Three Gorges Plant can help reduce the emission of 490 million tons of carbon, 5.93 million tons of sulfur dioxide, and 1.67 million tons of nitrogen oxide. Seen from this perspective, the Power Station has a remarkable positive effect on energy conservation and environmental protection. Therefore, the Three Gorges project is listed as one of the ten greatest world’s renewable energy constructions by the world famous science magazine Scientific America.

　　A foreign guest once made such a remark on the Three Gorges, “The Three Gorges project is unique in the world!”

　　During the past 10 years, the “Three Gorges Effects” have gradually become conspicuous.

　　What the Three Gorges creates is not only the hydro power but also the brand. “The Three Gorges is broadly accepted in the world’s hydroelectric area. You will be given a special treatment abroad if you say you are from the Three Gorges”, said Ma Zhenbo, the Vice President of China Yangtze Power Co., LTD.

　　Li Yitian, a professor from Wuhan University, who has long been engaged in the research of the Yangtze River sediment management and water course evolution, said that he feels the same way. “In the previous years, when I attended international meetings, I did not attract much attention from the other participants. But now the situation is very different. Whenever I mentioned that I have participated in the Three Gorges Dam construction, the foreigners would turn their eyes to me and pay attention to what I was talking about.”

　　In addition to electricity and the brand, the Three Gorges Power Plant has also become well known for its talents and unique management modes.

　　After long-time practice, the Three Gorges project has summarized a set of advanced hydropower project management modes that can be learned from.

　　“The Three Gorges is another cradle of China\'s hydropower, and cultivated a lot of top talents specialized in hydro power. For example, the Three Gorges Power Plant has sent out a large number of technical experts to both Xiluodu and Xiangjiaba power plants, which helped with the projects starting from the very beginning and were involved in the whole management.” Ma Zhenbo said.

　　As the world\'s largest hydroelectric power plant, the Three Gorges Power Plant has only 450 personnel on the payroll, but they are responsible for the project with the world\'s largest installed capacity. Usually, there are only three people on duty in the control room of the Three Gorges Power Plant. The shift supervisor Xu Yunlong who has worked here for 10 years said that, “We have five days in three shifts, and we’re responsible for the management and maintenance of the equipments in order to keep them running smoothly.”

　　“All the generator sets have experienced the test featuring large flow, high head, long cycle, high load in the second year, which basically exposed all the problems that might appear.” Cheng Yongquan, the chief electromechanical engineer said, “With the gradual resolution of these problems, the operation of the new generator sets will be getting better and better.”

　　The biggest characteristic of the Three Gorges project is innovation in both technology and management.

　　With regard to this, the director of the Three Gorges Power Plant Li Pingshi has much to say. “I noticed that a 400-megawatt power plant required the management of 400 people in America when I went to visit it before. But now, the Three Gorges Hydropower Station of more than 20 million kilowatts only needs 400 people.”

　　The 10th anniversary of the Three Gorges project operation coincides with the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Three Gorges Group.

　　For 20 years, the China Three Gorges Corporation has been developing continually, and become the leading enterprise in the domestic and even international hydropower industry. By the end of 2013, the enterprise operational installed capacity will reach 40 million kilowatts, accounting for about 14% of the country\'s hydropower installed capacity. Having won many honors such as “the hydropower station which has more than half of the world\'s 700,000 kilowatts hydroelectric units” and “one of the country\'s top three hydropower station”, the “Three Gorges” brand stood out in the world\'s hydropower industry.

　　The “Three Gorges Dream is the dream of our Three Gorges people, who aspire to make contributions to the great rejuvenation of China”, Cao Guangjing, the Chairman of the China Three Gorges Corporation, said with excitement while recalling the extraordinary history of the Corporation development on the occasion of the 20-year establishment of the Corporation.

　　“To continue realizing the “Three Gorges Dream”, we need to accelerate the construction of a world-class clean energy group.” Mr. Cao proposed a new corporate development goal, and solemnly promised that, "We will give top priority to the further construction and effective management of the Three Gorges project, and bring into full play its overall benefits.” (Xinhua News Agency, Dec 15)