Before the deluge : the vanishing world of the Yangtze's three gorges / Deirdre Chetham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chetham, Deirdre, 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dams--Environmental aspects.

Yangtze River Region (China)--History.

Yangtze River Region (China).

Yangtze River Region (China)--Social life and customs.

Dams--Environmental aspects--China--Yangtze River Gorges.

Dams.

China--Yangtze River Gorges.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 296 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Summary:

So Begins Deirdre Chetham's elegiac book about the towns along the banks of the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River, written on the very eve of their destruction. The Yangtze flows 3,900 miles eastward from its source on the Tibetan-Qinghai plateau, where the Mekong and Salween also make their start, to Shanghai and the East China Sea. After great controversy, the Chinese government has begun construction of the world's largest hydroelectric dam in the Three Gorges section of the Yangtze, a place renowned for its beauty. For over two thousand years, the Yangtze has been the great transport route linking the coast with the west and southwest and providing irrigation for the farms that feed China. Once the dam is completed in 2009, the water level will rise as much as 350 feet in a hundred-mile stretch of the river. The water will submerge over a dozen large cities, almost 1,500 villages and towns, and innumerable historical and cultural sites. Over a million people are being moved, voluntarily or otherwise, altering not only their lives, but the lives of a multitude of others whose existence is intertwined with the river. A region already struggling with the impact of widespread rural migration is confronting the reality of having even fewer incentives to keep its youth in an area many wish to flee.

Before the Deluge captures a sense of the daily life, traditions, and history of the people who live along the Upper Yangtze's Three Gorges area. It chronicles the region's past and present with an eye on the disruption of an existing way of life. Perhaps most importantly, it captures a world that is rapidly vanishing under the rushing waters of one of the world's largest rivers.

Contents:

Map of China xi

Map of Three Gorges xii

Dynasties and Other Historical Periods xvii

Chapter 1 The Towns 7

Chapter 2 History and Myth 31

Chapter 3 Traditional Life 49

Chapter 4 Outside Pressures 71

Chapter 5 Change from Within 91

Chapter 6 War Along the Yangtze 107

Chapter 7 Remaking Man and Nature 125

Chapter 8 Decisions and Delays 145

Chapter 9 New Currents 163

Chapter 10 The Dam 177

Chapter 11 From Past to Present 203

Chapter 12 The Eve of the Flood 219

Appendix I Yangtze River Facts and Figures 251

Appendix II Three Gorges Dam Facts and Figures 253

Appendix III Impact of the Three Gorges Dam on Selected Locations 255.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [269]-275) and index.

ISBN:

0312214170

OCLC:

48777344