Qingxi

For two hours, I wait for the Quigxi town police chief to show up. Fearing that my film and videotape might be confiscated, I frantically look for places to hide what might be viewed as ‘state secrets.’ I take the film out of my camera, and hide it in my bags. I do the same with the videotape, testing out different locations; under the bed, in a secret compartment, with my dirty laundry. I try putting it back in the camera, and rewinding it to the least incriminating section. After a prolonged nervous panic, I finally resign myself to the fact that I am very close to being caught, and there is nothing to do, except wait and play the innocent.

I had spent this day, like many others, walking around talking to local people about the Three Gorges Dam. I asked them about their lot in the resettlement scheme that will force the relocation of an estimated 1.3 million people from their ancestral homes along the Yangtze River. The subject generated a great deal of anger and resentment.

On a cobble-stoned street lined on one side with weathered wooden housing, and on the other by what resembled the aftermath of a carpet-bombing, a young woman stood knitting. “It’s unfair. Immigration doesn’t put food in the peasants’ mouth,” she said. “If your old home is a one-story house, you get 10,000 yuan (1200 USD). How can we build a new home with that?” An elder man spoke up too: “I’m not a migrant, but I can tell you what migrants think. They’re not happy.”

Further down the road, past a leveled neighborhood, I encountered a group of people scavenging for scrap metal amongst the rubble. “Can you tell me about the town of Qingxi?” I asked them.

“We all live here. What do you want me to tell you? We’re all being relocated.”

“What do you think of the relocation?”

“It’s not been executed well. The compensation is unfair! The local government here is administering the plan poorly. It’s most unfair here in Qingxi. If you are interviewing us, can you bring our words to the upper levels of the government?”

Interviewing the locals was indeed part of my plan, but providing information to the local police about who was talking to foreigners was not. The chief and his cadres arrived and introduced themselves cordially, swiftly making themselves comfortable for a lengthy ‘chat.’ As I stared at their epaulettes, I feigned knowledge of as little Chinese as possible; with wide eyes I claimed to be a tourist, unsure of the best way to get downstream to the Three Gorges. It seemed a believable story—after all, so many other Westerners had boarded cruise ships down the river to catch a last glimpse of this soon-to-be-lost landscape.

The officers painstakingly reviewed my passport and grilled me about the places I had visited. The camera bag sat in the middle of the room, begging to divulge its evidence. To my surprise, they decided to leave me with only a stern warning. “If you are a tourist and not a reporter, like you say, then you can take pictures of the river and scenery. You are not allowed to interview locals.”

Though this encounter (along with other strikingly similar ones) thoroughly unnerved me, the police may have had more reason to be nervous than I. International controversy surrounding the Three Gorges Dam has led to tightened control over what foreigners can and cannot see. Officially, travel is unrestricted throughout all of the Three Gorges. Yet several times I was outright barred from seeing certain areas, lest I come away with a less than favorable impression.


The Dam

The Three Gorges Dam, arguably the largest construction project in modern history, is slowly yet surely becoming a reality. First conceived in a 1919 speech by Sun Yat Sen, it later became a long-held dream for Mao Zedong:

Walls of stone will stand upstream to the west
To hold back Mt. Wu's clouds and rain
Till a smooth lake rises in the narrow gorges
The mountain goddess if she is still there
Will marvel at a world so changed.

In tribute to Mao’s poetically obsessive vision to control the mighty Yangtze waters, the National People’s Congress decreed approval for the project in 1992. With 17 years slated for its completion, the dam would be massive in both size and effect.

The hydroelectric dam stretches two kilometers across and measures 185 meters tall. By 2009 it will create a reservoir that extends 600 kilometers. Thirteen major cities, 1500 towns and villages, and more than 1000 unearthed archeological sites will be flooded. Also due to be inundated are torn-down factories, garbage dumps, gravesites, and latrines. As the Yangtze is transformed into Mao’s “smooth lake,” the river’s natural ability to flush itself will be severely impaired.

The Chinese government claims that the dam will improve river navigation, provide one ninth of the country’s electricity needs, and tame the treacherous floods that have devastated the Yangtze River valley for millennia. However, many argue that the giant concrete wall would only hinder the most rare, catastrophic floods, since the more common types are typically fed by the swelling of tributaries downstream of the dam. At the cost of massive human displacement and environmentally dangerous effects, critics claim that viable alternatives have not been adequately considered.

In June 2003, the first phase of the Three Gorges Dam construction project was completed. The sluice gates were closed, allowing the reservoir to rise 135 meters and submerge what was left of the demolished lower sections of cities and towns. Thus far, more than 700,000 people have been displaced to newly erected cities or to “host communities” in other provinces.

While many migrants are enjoying newfound opportunities in their new cities, there are also many that have slipped through the cracks. With no resettlement compensation, they are living as homeless refugees in the gutted remains of buildings near their old homes. Some people assigned to far off provinces have moved back, finding their “host communities” hostile and the language barrier too much to bear. And with a huge influx of money earmarked for long-term resettlement, mishandling of funds has been inevitable and some migrants have fallen victim to a variety of get-rich-quick schemes. Using government grants, factories provide fictitious jobs for migrants and hand over a reduced lump sum check for their resettlement. With only jobs and homes on paper, these victims have unwittingly relinquished their right to live anywhere.


Yunyang

Mud and dust cover the rubble of former buildings, homes, and footpaths. A ceiling beam sticks out and the bricks still form the corner of a room. It’s a stark reminder of what was once here. From afar, blotches of pink and navy blue dot the landscape; up close, these favored colors of clothing are joined by a toothbrush, a comb, a single shoe, a hanger, and many other easily replaceable items. Now, a wasteland lies near the banks of the Yangtze. It’s a place for scavenging anything from rebar to plastic wrappers.

The air is thick with the stench of burning trash, and ripened by the particulate matter of felled buildings. Light reflects off the particles in the air, giving everything a distinctly photographic mood. I expected this to be a hurried and cacophonous process, but instead it is moving at the speed of ping…ping…ping… a slow and rhythmic tune by hammers and chisels, almost gently bringing structures back to the ground.

As I arrive in Yunyang via the old docks, the wind begins to howl. The tarps from temporary shelters are flapping violently and discarded instant noodle containers are flying everywhere. A thick mist turned to drizzle and I take cover in one of the mini-vans shuttling to and from the new city about 40 kilometers away. The driver and two other passengers are engaged in a heated debate about Three Gorges Resettlement.

The woman next to me stated, “Those people living within city limits will have to spend 50,000 yuan [6000 USD] per family to move.”

“Government officials can get the money to move, but it’s difficult for ordinary people,” chimed in the man from the back seat.

“They get richer after moving, and we get poorer after moving.”

“There’s a saying that goes, ‘the smaller the clothes dresser, the messier the inside,’” posited the driver.

“The smaller the county is, the easier it is for officials to be corrupted. Fuck!”

All you have to do is perk up your ears to hear conversations about how dissatisfied migrants are with their compensations. Mostly, people complain about receiving too little money—or none at all. In many cases, promised housing hasn’t been built yet. Since compensation is based primarily on property values, migrants living in poorer areas are allotted less money. Unfortunately, moving expenses are the same, no matter where migrants are from, placing an extra burden on rural families. As the cut-off dates advance for tearing down structures, many are left in limbo.

In October 2003, dam officials announced that the reservoir would be filled to 156 meters in 2005. That’s one year earlier than the long-established timetable. Fears are already running high that resettlement funds are depleting, and later-stage migrants may not get their fair compensation. This uncertainty may well add more opportunity for local officials to take advantage of the migrants’ plight.

As China’s Three Gorges Dam begins to deliver on its promise of electricity, and as 10,000 ton barges embark on their new trade routes to the heartland, at what cost does prosperity for the few come? The roving noodle saleswoman, the man chipping mortar from bricks, and the family harvesting their last crop before heading off to factory jobs are the real financiers of this mega-project. Without them China would have nothing, but will they be remembered for their sacrifice?