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China: Ancient Chinese heritage endangered along Yangtze River
Archeologists and historians believe that Chinese culture was born along the
banks of the Yangtze River, where recent excavations have uncovered a vast
historical record. In Zhongbaodao, a village near Yichang in the Yangtze River
valley, for example, archeologists have revealed more than 200 ancient tombs
filled with pottery, porcelain, stoneware, and polished tools dating back at
least 7,000 years; they also unearthed a 3,000-year-old kiln from the Shang
Dynasty. At countless other sites along the river, scores of treasures have
emerged, from small, elaborately detailed jade jewelry to massive stone temples
such as an intricately carved, four-story stone temple built during the Ming
Dynasty in honor of General Khan Fei.
In 1993, the Chinese government simultaneously began the largest archeological
expedition ever undertaken in the country and the largest hydroelectric dam in
the world. The Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze will provide power for
industrial development, reducing China's reliance on coal, and protect
approximately 10 million people from periodic floods. Scheduled for completion
in 2013, the dam, besides submerging cultural heritage, will also force
the relocation of likely more than one million people and damage the ecosystem and
scenery in the Yangtze's spectacular Three Gorges region. Thousands of
archeologists from China and other countries will try to excavate more than 300
square miles of riverbank before the dam's reservoir submerges them; teams will
also dismantle and relocate several important temples.
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