China's Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydro-electro project, opened
again to tourists this week -- on the condition they don't bring canned drinks,
video camera or, bizarrely, umbrellas.
And only 1,000 people are allowed on to the 185-metre (600-ft) dam a day and
they can only stay for 20 minutes within a stretch of 500 square metres above
the floodgates, Xinhua news agency said.
The 2,235-metre-long dam in the central province of Hubei opened to tourists
for the first time in 2005, from July to September -- the Yangtze River's main
flood season when a spectacular flood discharge is on display.
But authorities opened the tourists' floodgates early this year because the
dam's expected completion in May would bring more "selling points" for tourism,
Xinhua said.
The security checks as strict as those at airports had ensured zero accidents
during last year's opening season when the dam received 100,000 tourists, Xinhua
said.
But it did not explain the ban on video cameras and canned drinks, let alone
the umbrellas.
The project, which was launched in 1993 amid controversy over the relocation
of about 1 million people and environmental damage, will have a generating
capacity of 18.2 million kilowatt hours, easing a energy-starved China's power
crunch.