The last group of 882 migrants to make way for the construction of the gigantic Three Gorges Project on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in central Hubei Province have left their homes in Fengjie County, and are due to arrive at their new homes in eastern Jiangxi Province today.
The resettlement project, started in 2000, involved more than one million people, 85 percent of whom lived in Chongqing Municipality. The majority of the migrants living in the reservoir area have moved away from the dam area, but still live in their hometowns.
A total of 165,000 people have been moved from their native lands. Of the total, 96,000 have resettled in other provinces. The remaining have been arranged in other Chongqing counties.
In the first phase, which ended in 2002, 72,000 people from Chongqing were relocated to 11 provinces and cities, including Shanghai and Jiangsu Province. An additional 25,300 people were relocated later.
The resettlement of migrants to other parts of China has now come to an end, said Zhao Gengtian, the official in charge of the resettlement project.
The Three Gorges project is the largest water control project in China and maybe even the world.