Migrants of Three Gorges

Historical Background

Three Gorges province, once attracted the attention of the world, was the only province which has been formally prepared and finally canceled by the People’s Republic of China. The Party Central Committee and the State Council published the “Notice on the building of the preparatory group for Three Gorges province” on March 4, 1985. The notice said that Three Gorges Dam under preparation is the biggest project since the founding of People’s Republic of China. The project will produce enormous benefit for the power generation, flood control and shipping. To ensure the smooth progress of the project, make appropriate arrangements of the migrants and accelerate the economic development of the Three Gorges area, the establishment of the Three Gorges province is necessary. The Party Central Committee and the State Council decided to cancel the preparatory group of the Three Gorges province and set a economic development office for the Three Gorges area on May 8, 1986.

General Introduction of the Migrants

In order to support the construction of Three Gorges Dam, over 1.1 million people leave their homeland. It is not a straightforward economic issue, but a politic issue and an emotion issue. The people there left their beloved home, land and their forefathers. Between 1993 and 2005 thousands of migrants made a big movement with strong innovation. The big covered area, the big migrant scale and the mass of creation is unprecedented in both width and depth.

Neither the running waters nor the standing hills can understand the deep attachment in the migrants’ minds. The people leave their fertile land and move to a hardscrabble land to start their new life. More than 160 thousand migrants move to other provinces of China with their deep attachment to their homeland. We can not understand what they have abandoned and their nostalgia to their homeland.

People concerns the migrants moved to the other provinces the most. They move from mountain areas to the plain areas, they have to cultivate oranges and crops instead of rice and cotton. The migrants were cheerfully welcomed by the people in other provinces. Their new settlements were located in the transportation-convenient places, offer them fertile land and beautiful houses. All the facilities are new, including the pots, dishes, and stoves. The children can get one-to-one help from the local students appointed by the school. There are detailed help plans in all the settlement places. The economical wealth and warm hearted local cadres and Party members will help the migrants to improve their production and the standard of living. We can find new relatives in the new place and take it as our homeland. The migrants take the care from the local government and the local people as their motivation for new start and adapt themselves to the local society quickly, and finally step in the road to fortune. The cadres made personal sacrifices for the migrants’ good; some of them dropped with fatigue at their posts and kept the promises made by the government. According to statistics, at least one member work outside the city in 60-70 percent of the migrant families, 20 percent of them engaged in service industry. They migrants are adapting themselves to the local society successfully in all the aspects of life, such as production, living and emotion.