The experimental dam of the Gezhouba Project is located at the lower end of the Three Gorges in the suburb of Yichang City, 38 km downstream of the TGP.

Project Introduction
The Gezhouba Water Conservancy Project includes the barrage, the power plant, the ship brake, the flood discharge brake, and the fishway, etc. It is currently the largest hydropower station in China. The embankment is 2,561m long and 70m high, which controls a drainage area of 1,000,000km2 with total content of 1.58 billion steres. With 21 dynamos the hydropower station will generate 13.8 billion KWH a year.

The No.3 ship lock is 18 meters in width and 120 meters in length, which allow passenger and cargo vessels and smaller ships of less than 3000 tons to pass. The No. 2 lock is 34 meters wide and 280 meters long and is able to accommodate ships over 10,000 tons.

It takes about 50 minutes for a ship to go through the second lock, and most cruising lines offer observation time when the ship through it.

Project Schedule
The construction of the Gezhouba Project started on December 30, 1970 and ended on December 10,1988. The Dam is 2606.5 meters high, with a total storage capacity of 1.58 billion m 3 and a maximum flood discharging capability of 110,000 m 3 /s. The two hydro-electric plants have 21 generating units with a total installed capacity of 2.715 million kw and annual output of 15.7 billion kwh, which is transmitted to Shanghai, Henan, Hunan,Wuhan,etc. The annual one-way shipping capacity of the navigation facilities is 50 million tons and its total investment was 4.848 billion yuan($0.557 billion) .Gezhouba Hydropower Plant generated a total of 140 billion kwh of electricity between 1981,when the first generating unit went into operation, and May, 1991, creating a total output value of 12 billion yuan($1.38 billion).

Gezhouba Project is a cascade which regulates the tailwater flow from the TGP and improves the navigation conditions between the two dams. After completion of the TGP,the annual guaranteed output of electricity from Gezhouba Hydro-power Plant will increase by about 430,000 kw. Therefore the two projects are considered as twins through thick and thin.

China tours inclusive of visiting Gezhouba Dam