The Three Gorges project has always been dogged by controversy. The first phase of work was completed in November of 1997. The live broadcast of the ceremony announced to the world that there would be no turning back on this unprecedentedly huge engineering project. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of former residents, carrying what household goods they could on their backs, walked away into an unknown future.
三峽工程在至今不斷的爭議中前行，一九九七年十一月第一期工程完成，實況轉播的截江合龍盛大儀式，不啻是向世人宣佈這史無前例的浩大工程義無反顧，而數十萬老老少少的居民也早已背起能帶走的有限家當，走向不可知的未來。