The controversial Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydro-electric project and will provide the equivalent of 18 nuclear power stations; power for the booming cities of central China.  China is constantly being criticised for the vast and increasing number of polluting coal fired power stations. The Dam will produce enough power to replace about one eighth of China’s coal fired power stations. The Dam will also control the floods further down the Yangtze that kill thousands every few years and enable more ships to navigate the Three Gorges with greater ease. However, the critical campaigners say this great feat of engineering comes at too high a cost.  The potential to transform the lives of millions through cleaner energy production and fewer floods is now perceived by many around the world as to be less important than the displacement of over a million people, the destruction of 1,200 towns and villages which will disappear under its rising waters, the loss of numerous valuable archaeological and cultural sites and its adverse effect on animal life.  Why is it that the Three Gorges Dam has been so heavily criticised when the Hoover Dam was celebrated across the world in the 1930s?  What does this tell us about how society has changed in its approach to man’s mastery over nature, and about contemporary attitudes to China?