HSIN-AN RIVER DAM

Chinese (Wade-Giles) Hsin-an Chiang Shui-k'u, or (Pinyin) Xin'anjiang Shuiku, hydroelectric project at the town of Hsin-an-chiang, Chekiang province, China. It was constructed between 1957 and 1977, its completion having apparently been much delayed by the ending of Soviet technical assistance to China. On its completion it was hailed as a triumph of Chinese technology. It consists of a dam 344 feet (105 m) high on the Hsin-an River, a tributary of the Fu-ch'un River (Ch'ien-t'ang River) in northwestern Chekiang, close to Chien-te. It was originally conceived as forming one of a series of hydroelectric stations in Chekiang. By 1980 the project's four 72,500-kilowatt generators were in operation, and five additional generators were eventually added, bringing the river project to its planned capacity of 652,500 kilowatts. The Hsin-an and the Huang-t'an-k'ou stations are linked to the power grid serving Hang-chou, Shanghai, Nan-ching (Nanking), and the Yangtze River delta region.