Chinanews, Beijing, Oct. 8 – The People's Daily Overseas Edition reported that on September 20, workers began to fill more water into the Three Gorges Dam so that it could finally touch the 156-meter mark, a water level required by the dam to start operation. Previously, the Three Gorges Dam was in cofferdam power generation phase when water kept in the dam reached only 135 meters. The water injection task is expected to be finished on October 20. By then, the water level will be raised by 21 meters and the injection will not cause much negative effect to the cultural relics near the dam area.

 

It is estimated that in the Three Gorges Dam area, there are 453 relic sites existing above ground (including those kept under water) and 376 relic sites under ground. The relics stored beneath the ground in the Three Gorges Dam area are scattered over a total area of 3 million square meters and cover the whole spectrum of the Chinese history, from Neolithic Age in remote antiquity to the Qing Dynasty in contemporary Chinese history.

 

In 1992 when the Three Gorges Dam construction project was kicked off, more than 1,000 archeologists from 72 cultural institutions nationwide started to investigate the relics in the dam area. During this period, they excavated 200,000 square meters of earth every year, or ten times their usual workload. So far, they have completed 90% of the work and according to a rough estimation, they have excavated more than 9,000 precious relics and 170,000 relics of the common run.

 

Through the preservation work, archeologists have made great achievement in the research of the Neolithic culture in northern and southern China, in the research about the history and culture of ancient people living in the southwest, and in the research about the ancient culture in central China.