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 ladder of the Chinese mainland—which form the Qutang Gorge (), the Wu Gorge (), and the Xiling Gorge () along the Yangtze River, which is where this area gets its name. The Three Gorges span from the western, upriver, cities of Fengjie and Yichang, in Chongqing Municipality, to the east, downstream, to Hubei province. The Three Gorges Reservoir Region is approximately in length, while the Three Gorges themselves occupy approximately within this region. The Three Gorges region has attracted global attention due to the Three Gorges Dam, which is changing the culture and environment of the region. Although it is