Work on the gigantic Three Gorges Project, on the middle reaches of the Yangtze river, is going smoothly.

Statistics show that an accumulative 19.2 billion yuan has been invested in the project since construction began in 1993, or more than ten million yuan per day.

Over the past four years, the construction site has witnessed the removal of 178 million cubic meters of earth and stone, averaging 120,000 cubic meters per day.

If a road with a width of one meter is paved with the earth and stone, it will be 170,000 kilometers long, more than four times around the earth at the equator.

The Three Gorges Project is expected to build a 175-m-high dam across the Yangtze, with the aim to use the river's abundant water resources to generate electricity and reduce the possible dangers from floods.

The project is scheduled to be completed in the year 2009 and cost at least 90 billion yuan.