Three Gorges Residents Set out for Resettlement in ShanghaiMore than 600 residents from the Three Gorges Project construction site in southwest China started their journey to east China's Shanghai Municipality Sunday.They came from Yunyang County of Chongqing Municipality, and are the first group of people who are leaving the Three Gorges Project construction area to resettle in the Chongming Island of Shanghai and 10 other provinces in the country. According to a related plan, a total of 70,000 rural people will leave five counties in Chongqing to resettle in Shanghai and 10 provinces including Zhejiang and Guangdong in three years. This year these places will each accept over 600 people from the Three Gorges Project construction area, and all the people are expected to reach their new homes before September 1, so that they can start farming in time and their children can go to school when the autumn semester starts. The 639 people from Chongqing's Yunyang County will build their homes on the Chongming Island, Shanghai. Today, Chongqing Municipality and Yunyang County sent out officials and a medical team to accompany them. Shanghai has made preparations to welcome the new residents, according to the Chongqing Resettlement Bureau. Shanghai has built spacious and well-designed houses for the new comers, and plans to grant 0.067 hectare of farmland to each of them. Shanghai will also reduce or exempt the new residents' agriculture taxes and have their children's tuition reduced or exempted. From 1993 to the end of 1999, 230,000 people have been relocated to higher elevations in the Three Gorges Project area. China will inject about 40 billion yuan into resettling 1.13 million people affected by the Three Gorges Project which will dam the Yangtze River in an area bordering Hubei Province, central China, and Chongqing Municipality. By the end of 1999, 17.68 billion yuan had been used for the resettlement project. |
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