Over one million tourists -- a record high -- visited the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, in the first seven months of 2011.

The figure was 230,000 more than that of the same period in 2010, according to statistics released by the tourism management department of the Three Gorges project.

Visitors are now able to enjoy the full view of the dam with both natural scenery and cultural heritage visible from the cruise ship, said Xu Ting, assistant manager of the marketing department of the Yangtze River Three Gorges Tourism Development Co. Ltd.

The dam has seen 1.45 million tourist arrivals in 2010 and set a goal of 1.75 million for this year.

The dam is one of five major tourist sites along the Yangtze River and also the country's largest industrial tourist site.

Construction of the 22.5-billion-U.S.-dollar Three Gorges project began in 1993 and was completed in 2009 in the mid-section of the Yangtze River, China's longest.

It is a multi-functional water control system, consisting of a dam, a five-tier ship lock, and 26 hydropower turbo-generators.

The 2,309-meter-long, 185-meter-high dam crest was opened to the public in 2005.