Tapping the power of the mighty Yangtze River has been a long-held dream of many Chinese leaders, including the late Mao Zedong. When fully operational, the Three Gorges Dam's 26 turbo-generators can produce 84.7 billion kwh of electricity annually, or roughly enough power for the whole of Shanghai. But the decision to build the Three Gorges Dam has not been an unanimous one despite the promise of clean, almost unlimited power. When the project was put to a vote in 1992, a third of the 2,600 Chinese lawmakers present signaled an unprecedented show of dissent by not giving it a "yes" vote. [Zigui, Oct 03 2006]
