China / Campaigns

The Mekong River, known as the Lancang in China, is the heart and soul of mainland Southeast Asia. Over 60 million people depend on the river and its tributaries for food, water, transport and many other aspects of their daily lives. The river supports one of the world’s most diverse fisheries, second only to Brazil’s Amazon River.

The Jinsha River (or "River of Golden Sands") is the name of the 2300 km section of the Yangtze River from Yushu in Qinghai Province to Yibin in Sichuan. Here the river carves a string of grand canyons, home to diverse ethnic minority groups and some of China’s most important biodiversity hot spots. The Jinsha River is also at the heart of arguably the largest hydropower development area in the world. Planned hydropower output in this area is equal to about ten times the power produced by the Three Gorges Dam alone.

The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s most notorious dam. The massive project sets records for number of people displaced (at least 1.3 million), number of cities and towns flooded (13 cities, 140 towns, 1,350 villages), and length of reservoir (more than 600 kilometers). The project has been plagued by

International Rivers has worked on several other projects in China, including Tiger Leaping Gorge Dam, Zipingpu Dam, and Megoe Tso Lake.