Three Gorges Project site will build a reception center and improve facilities in 2006 to cope with the rapid increase of incoming tourists.

The number of tourists visiting the Three Gorges Project site, the world's largest water conservancy and hydropower project, reached a record 1.05 million in 2005, according to statistics from the Three Gorges Project Tourism Development Co. Ltd.

The site has become a new engine for tourism development in the whole Three Gorges area, with the number of incoming tourists growing nearly 30 percent annually, according to a report of Tuesday's Beijing Daily Messenger newspaper.

The planned reception center, to cover an area of 8.8 hectares, will be built close to the Xiling Yangtze River Bridge in central China's Hubei Province. Service facilities including stores, restaurants and theaters will be built at the center.

Films featuring the beautiful scenery of the Three Gorges and the grand project will be shown in the theatres of the reception center, which is expected to be completed in August.

Launched in 1993, the Three Gorges Project, including a 185-meter-high dam and 26 generators on both banks of the Yangtze, is being built in three phases on the middle reaches of the river, China's longest.

After more than 10 years of construction, the Three Gorges Project has become China's largest industrial scenic spot with multiple functions of flood control, electricity generation, tourism and navigation, attracting more and more tourists.

(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2006)