Early Chinese revolutionist Sun Yatsen first proposed to dam on yangtze River in the year of 1919. In an article written in both English and Chinese, he illustrated the benefits of this project in terms of power generating and navigation.

Sun Yatsen

Sun's efforts to build the dam nearly come to true in the year of 1930 and 1932, but both failed due to an unstable political situation and fragile industry base.

The idea to dam the Yangzterive resurrected in 1944, when the US government promised a massive technological and financial aid. Preparation work went smoothly in the early stages as technicians of each country frequented across the Pacific Ocean. However, the 105.6 MW-project was forced to an end under a worsened domestic situation.

After 1949, late Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai showed great interests in exploiting the Yangtze River by reining it at the Three Gorges section. Inquiries and inspections were made by Chairman Mao to discuss a feasibility.

The Gezhouba project, the first dam project put into construction stage upon the Yangtze River, was launched in 1970. Not fully prepared, the Gezhouba suffered backfires in its early years, but experiences were collected.

More than 60 years after Sun Yatsen first raised the proposal of Three Gorges Project (TGP), then Premier Deng Xiaoping brought back to life the preparation work of TGP in early 1980's. Jiang Zeming speeded up the process as he took over the government in 1989.

In Julyl 1991, the TGP preparation committee submitted a final report on kicking off the mammoth project to the Chinese State Department and later the Chinese National People's Congress.

The seventh People's Congress oked the proposal in its fifth plenary meeting on April 3, 1992. The nearly century-old project finally built up its strength to get a start.

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