On this day, 44 years ago, on January 4, 1981 (November 29, 1980, the Gezhouba River interception project was successfully closed. On January 4, 1981, the Qiāng embankment of the Gezhouba Water Conservancy Project, the first dam of the Wanli Yangtze River, was successfully closed. The designed installed capacity of the entire project is 2715000 kilowatts. The annual one-way throughput capacity of the three ship locks will reach 50 million tons. Gezhouba can raise the water level in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River by more than 20 meters and return the water by 120 to 200 kilometers. It can greatly improve the difficult Three Gorges Channel. The Yangtze River is the world's famous third largest river. Gezhouba is a small island in the center of the Yangtze River, located near Yichang City, Hubei Province. The rolling Yangtze River passes through the 200-kilometer-long Three Gorges and exits Nanjinguan at the mouth of Xiling Gorge. The river surface widens and the water flow slows down. Three kilometers below the mouth of the Gorge, the river surface has reached about 2200 meters wide. There are two sandbars in the center of the river, one large and the other small, dividing the river water into three waterways: the big river, the second river and the three river. The big sandbar is called Xikan, and the small island in the river is Gezhouba. Conquering and developing the Yangtze River has been the long-cherished wish of our people for many years. On January 4, 1981, the Gezhouba River Closure Project was successfully closed, bringing about a historic turning point in the fate of the Yangtze River, the world's third largest river: the surging torrent that has been running since ancient times was locked up by the China people. Since then, history has opened a new chapter in the Yangtze River's benefit to the people. To let the rolling Yangtze River flow eastward in accordance with the will of the people and be intercepted on the river with a flow of 4720 cubic meters per second is a pioneering undertaking in the history of water conservancy and hydropower construction in my country. In the past, the maximum flow rate at Sanmenxia River was 2030 cubic meters per second. This fully demonstrates the wisdom and strength of our people to conquer nature. The Gezhouba River Closure Project consists of five major buildings, including two ship locks, a sand flushing gate, a hydropower station, and a discharge gate. From the left bank of the river to the center of the river, a silver-gray dam 40 meters higher than the river bed crosses the Second and Three Rivers. The closure embankment close to the dam tightly grasps the throat of the river. The rapids of the Yangtze River rush down from this narrow and shrinking mouth and the Erjiang sluice gate, and the Yangtze River is cut in half from here. The Gezhouba River Closure Project was successfully completed. Five months later, on June 15, the dam began to be navigable. The Three Gorges dangerous shoals, which have been famous since ancient times, became smooth due to the 20-meter rise in the reservoir area. On September 1, 1988, the 20-story Dajiang Ship Lock No. 1 was successfully tested. The No. 1 and No. 2 Ship Locks, which are among the largest ship locks in the world, stood side by side on the Yangtze River. On December 10, 1988, the Gezhouba Hydropower Plant, the largest hydropower station in China, with an installed capacity of 2.715 million kilowatts, was completed and put into operation. The construction of Gezhouba has played a huge role in promoting the prosperity and development of my country's economy. The Yangtze River was successfully blocked, and Gezhouba became famous all over the world. In an introduction article written by an American after visiting Gezhouba, he compared Gezhouba to "the New Great Wall of China." The Hong Kong English-language newspaper "South China Morning Post" published an editorial on the successful closure of the first dam of the Yangtze River, saying that it was "as great as the United States sending astronauts to the moon."