Yangtze River

This passage is about the river in China known as the Yangtze River.

Lexile Level: 760L

Categories: People & Places Science & Technology Animals & Nature

The Yangtze River is the third longest river in the world. It is located in China. For thousands of years, people have lived and worked along the Yangtze. The land is good for farming, and the river makes it easy to travel. Some sections of the Yangtze flow through gorges, which are steep, narrow canyons. One of these sections is called the Three Gorges. In 1993, China began to build a dam in the Three Gorges. The dam will create a deep reservoir on one side. This water will flow through parts of the dam to create electricity. When it is finished, the dam will be the largest in the world. It will be almost six hundred feet high and nearly a mile and a half wide. Some people are against the dam. The water from the reservoir will flood more than 400 square miles of land, and over one million people will have to leave their homes.