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Explore the region
About Ertan Scenic Area
Ertan Scenic Area (二滩) is the dam, reservoir and surrounding forest of the Ertan Hydroelectric Station (二滩水电站) on the lower Yalong River (雅砻江), where Yanbian (盐边) and Miyi (米易) counties meet, 46 km from central Panzhihua (攀枝花).
The name means "second shoal". Sichuan Daily explains that after the Yalong enters Yanbian, villagers named its shoals in order: a first shoal at the Hongni River (红坭河) confluence, the second in the former Jinhe Township (金河乡), then a third further down. The dam was built at the second, 33 km above the point where the Yalong joins the Jinsha River (金沙江).
Main construction began in September 1991, the river was closed off in November 1993, the first generator joined the grid in August 1998 and the last entered commercial service on 4 December 1999. Sichuan Daily calls it the largest hydropower station China completed in the twentieth century. It was the first of the Yalong's 21 planned cascade stations to be carried out, the first project in China built entirely through international tendering under FIDIC contract terms, and, at US$970 million, the largest World Bank loan to a single project. A 240 m double-curvature arch dam holds back a reservoir of 5.8 billion cubic metres at a normal level of 1,200 m, and the project also has an underground powerhouse and six 550 MW generating units. In June 2006 it was one of the ten first projects given the National Environment-Friendly Project (国家环境友好工程) award.
The reservoir and the mountains around it now form Ertan National Forest Park (二滩国家森林公园), 732.4 km² in Yanbian and Miyi on Panzhihua's northern outskirts. Its forests change with height, from evergreen broadleaf woods through Yunnan pine and mixed oak and pine to montane and subalpine conifers, and Sichuan Daily counts more than 400 species of wild animals, 19 of them rare. The lake holds eight islets. Southwest Power News reported that the new lake brought tourism to Yumen Town (渔门镇) in Yanbian and cage fish farming on about 150,000 m² of its surface.
What to look for
- The 240 m double-curvature arch dam and its flood outlets at the old second shoal
- The reservoir's eight islets, part of the park's lake-and-island zone (湖岛风光)
- Tianshengqiao (天生桥, "natural bridge") and Xianren Cave (仙人洞), two of the forest park's nine scenic zones
- Tongzilin (桐子林), Pusayan (菩萨岩) and Gaoba Pinghu (高坝平湖, "high dam, level lake") zones
- Forest belts from evergreen broadleaf woods up to subalpine conifers
- Ganyu Bridge (鳡鱼大桥), a 200 m-span concrete arch over the Ganyu River (鳡鱼河) arm of the reservoir, which replaced a 1995 suspension bridge
Location & getting there
Getting to Ertan Scenic Area
- Search for 二滩 with 攀枝花市 and 盐边县.
Find Ertan Scenic Area
二滩 · 盐边县
No reliable map pin yet: search by the Chinese name.
Sources & visit information
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-23. Opening hours, admission and access arrangements are not covered; confirm current visitor information with the site.
Some facts checked against Wikipedia contributors, "二滩水电站" · CC BY-SA 4.0.