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A ceremony was held recently as a prelude to the relocation of an ancient temple in Yunyang County, Chongqing Municipality, to save it from being inundated by water from the Three Gorges Reservoir.

Built more than 1,700 years ago, the temple honors an ancient hero named Zhang Fei in the Three Kingdoms era (A.D. 220-280), who still enjoys high prestige among Chinese people. It is called "the oldest resident" on the site of the Three Gorges Reservoir.

The temple will be moved 32 kilometers upstream of the Yangtze River. It is expected to reopen on July 1, 2003.

Relocation of the temple, originally scheduled for August, has been postponed by the local government to accommodate visitors during the seven-day holiday from October 1. More than 30,000 domestic and overseas people visited the temple during that time.

The reservoir will flood 632 square kilometers of land in four stages and eventually be 175 meters deep.

The Chinese government expects the Three Gorges Project, of which the reservoir is an important constituent, to help control floods in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and generate vast amounts of hydro-electric power.