The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in Hubei Province, China, begins operation. Completed and fully operational by July 2012, it is the world's largest capacity hydroelectric power station. The controversial project cost over $50 billion, displaced at least 1.3 million people, and supplies about 11% of China's hydropower. It stands as a monumental symbol of China's economic might and engineering ambition, but also of the profound social and environmental costs of large-scale development.

The Three Gorges Dam is a dominant presence in contemporary Chinese literature and poetry, a subject of both national pride and deep criticism. Its construction and impact have been explored in works that grapple with themes of displacement, modernization, and the relationship between the state and the individual. The dam has become a powerful symbol in the global environmental movement, and it features in the work of poets and writers from around the world who reflect on the human cost of progress.