John W. Morris
Site of the Three Gorges Dam.
Photographs taken during General Morris' trip to China in February 1980.
very primitive, no heat at night and little heat in the daytime but occasional hot water this
time; however, you didn't dare get up in the middle of the night because it was bitter cold.
Seems like everyone except me became ill.
The next day we boarded a riverboat and went up river to the Three Gorges Dam site. We
passed beautiful scenery into the high gorges and debarked to visit dam site borings. After a
brief visit we had lunch on the boat on the return to Yichang. Then back to Beijing. In those
days, the best hotel was the Beijing Hotel. The present new hotels were not yet built. Cars
were rare; everybody walked or rode a bicycle.
Contrary to Russia, the Chinese were very friendly to the military. I wore my uniform to the
first briefing and I realized right away I was getting too much attention. Our chairman, Dave
Freeman, was being ignored to some extent so I wore civilian clothes thereafter.
Our headquarters in Beijing were in the American Embassy where our whole group met to
prepare our final report. En route to Beijing from Three Gorges, we traveled by train for part
of the trip during which Lloyd Duscha, Bill Murden, and I discussed the Three Gorges Dam.
Having seen other dams, I felt I should raise some questions about Three Gorges when we met
with the Chinese officials. The Corps team seemed to support my views. As a result,I told Mr.
Freeman, as we were preparing for our final briefing, of my reservations and questions about
the Three Gorges Dam.
As an example, the Chinese talked about comprehensive base planning, project planning.
They had all the right words but I had the feeling that they maximized the power productivity
and then they stuffed flood control, transportation, et cetera, into the project. That bothered
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