A total of a million ships have passed through the Three Gorges Dam since it opened to traffic in June 2003, the Three Gorges Navigation Authority said on Tuesday.

In the past two decades, the total cargo throughput via the ship locks has exceeded 1.936 billion tonnes. It has significantly boosted transportation efficiency on the river, providing robust support for the safe and smooth navigation of the Yangtze River.

The Three Gorges project is a multi-functional water-control system consisting of a 2,309-meter-long and 185-meter-high dam, with five-tier ship locks on the north and south sides and 34 turbo-generators with a combined generating capacity of 22.5 million kilowatts.