China's Three Gorges Dam attracted a record high of 1.25 million
tourist arrivals last year, a year-on-year increase of six percent,
according to tourism developers.
The dam received 310,000 foreign tourists in 2007, up 35 percent
from 2006, said Xu Ting, a marketing clerk with the Yangtze River
Three Gorges Tourism Development Co., Ltd.
2007 was also the third consecutive year for the dam to host
more than one million tourists, according to Xu.
The dam area will see more tourists this year thanks to the
great national events of the basic completion of the Three Gorges
Project within the year and the Olympic Games in August, Xu added.
The company launched chartered flight business in May last year
in cooperation with travel agencies in Hong Kong and Taiwan to
develop the market in these areas.
The Three Gorges Airport was approved in November to open to
overseas passengers, making it possible for foreign tourists to fly
directly to Yichang, Hubei Province where the dam is located, on
international or region lines.
The 22.5-billion-U.S.-dollar Three Gorges hydropower project was
launched in 1993 in the mid-section of the Yangtze River, China's
longest. Its 26 turbo-generators are designed to eventually produce
84.7 billion kwh of electricity a year after its scheduled
completion in 2008.
(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2008)
