Xinhua
September 24, 2014
YICHANG, Sept. 24– Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project, will befree to Chinese tourists from Thursday, China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC) andYichang municipal government announced on Wednesday.
The dam in Yichang city of central China’s Hubei Province, will be free to all Chinesetourists, including overseas Chinese and those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan,according to the announcement. Neither the CTGC, which runs the dam, nor Yichanggovernment mentioned whether or how they would charge foreign tourists.
It is rare for Chinese scenic areas to eliminate ticket fees. There have been manycomplaints about high admission fees in tourist spots across the country.
The Three Gorges Dam currently charges 105 yuan (17 U.S. dollars) for each adult.
Chinese tourists can make online reservation or walk up with an identity card. Themaximum number of tourists every day will be restricted to 40,000.
Eliminating entrance fees shows the social responsibility of CTGC as a state-ownedenterprise, said Sha Xianhua, deputy general manager of CTGC.
The dam receives an average of 1.8 million tourists every year, about 15 million touristssince its completion in 2006.
The Three Gorges project is a multi-functional water control system, consisting of a 2,309meter long, 185 meter high dam, five tiers of locks, and 26 hydropower turbo-generators.It generated 82.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2013, accounting for 1.55 percentof the country’s gross power generation.
