three gorges dam becomes popular tourist site

the three gorges dam, the largest of its kind in the world, in central china has become a popular tourist site which attracted an estimated 100,000 tourists in the week-long may day holiday, a travel agency executive said on friday. some 13,000 people visited the dam on thursday, the fourth day of the may day "golden week" for tourism, and the number of tourists is expected to hit a record high of 100,000 in the week, said xu ting, an executive with the tourism development company of the three gorges dam. more people will visit the dam this year as the temporary cofferdam is to be demolished in june and the water level of the three gorges reservoir will rise from 139 meters to 156 meters in october, xu said. china lengthened its three major public holidays, the spring festival, may day and national day, from three days to seven days each in 1999, which has created three so-called "golden weeks" for tourism. about 66,000 people visited the dam during the may day "golden week" last year. the number of tourists to the dam has increased by 40 percent every year since it opened to tourists in 1997. in the first four months of this year, the dam received 220,000travelers, up 43 percent year on year. launched in 1993, the three gorges project is a 185-metre-high dam that will house 26 generating units on both banks of the yangtze river. the project will be completed in 2009 and generate 84.7 billion kwh of electricity annually.