Tasang Dam Grid Company, China Three Gorges Project Corporation and the British Malcolm Dunstan & Associates. The groundbreaking ceremony for the dam was in March 2007, but since the ceremony, actual construction of the dam has been stalled, and there has been little activity at the dam-site. Since 1996, as many as 300,000 villagers, mostly Shan people have been displaced to make room for the Tasang Dam’s reservoir. Thousands more relocations are expected as construction progresses. The dam’s reservoir will dissect Shan State in half –almost to the Chinese border – and will negatively impact the local communities and ecosystems. Myanmar’s Junta
Three Gorges still tower above the river, and the gorges continue to offer views of the surrounding cliffs. The riverboat companies operating on the Three Gorges are experiencing an increase in demand for river cruises. The increased width and depth of the river permits larger ships through the gorges, and there has been a significant increase in river traffic of all kinds, including bulk cargo and container barges. After the construction of the Three Gorges Dam was approved, archaeologists were allowed time and resources to carry out rescue work. However, after the dam was built and used to store water, a large