Three Gorges assisted Yu the Great in controling the waters and guiding boatmen. The Xiling Gorge comprises a series of famous gorges, including Military Book and Sword Gorge, Yellow Cow Gorge, and Lantern's Shadow Gorge. In 1919, after Sun Yat-sen had put forward the concept in the Plan for Industrial Development of his (), experts investigated damming the Three Gorges, but it was not until 1994 that the Three Gorges project officially started. In 1944, the Nationalist government recruited John L. Savage, the Chief Engineer of the United States Bureau of Reclamation, who came to China and made a 10-day investigation of
Three Gorges Reservoir Region 300–340 days. The annual runoff flow at the site of the dam of the Three Gorges Project is 451 billion m³ with the annual sediment discharge of 530 million tons. The Three Gorges abounds in water resources, ecological resources, tourism resources, and the resources of some ores, which have a great potential for exploration. The Yangtze River flows through the Three Gorges Reservoir Region with the good conditions for water transportation and the water-resources development. The potential installed capacity of hydropower can be about 30,000 MW in the Three Gorges Reservoir Region where the water resources are the most abundant