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The Three Gorges water control project now being built in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and believed to be the largest in the world has become a major tourist attraction.

Sources from the China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corporation said 560,000 local and overseas tourists visited the project construction site last year.

Construction has been sped up for a number of tourist facilities near the dam of the water control project, including a sight-seeing dock,to expan tourism around the gigantic water control facility.

Construction of the world's largest hydropower project, locatednear Yichang in central China's Hubei Province, began in 1993, will have cost an estimated 50.09 billion yuan (about US$ 6.04 billion), by its completion in 2009.

The project consists of a 1,983-meter-long and 185-meter-high dam and 26 generating units with a combined capacity of 18.2 million kW and an annual output of 84.7 billion kWh. The permanent ship lock can accommodate ships with a combined weight of 10,000 dwt.

Water storage at the Three Gorges will begin in 2003, when the first group of generating units and the permanent ship lock will be put into operation.