Relocation for new Water Diversion Project

The relocation for the building of the central route of the SNWD by 2014 will involve 330,000 residents - 180,000 in Hubei and 150,000 in neighbouring Henan Province. The project is designed to take water from a section of China's largest river, the Yangtze, to satisfy demand in the north China's drought-prone megacities - Beijing and Tianjin.
The government paid a last hometown dinner and organised a troupe of gong and drum players to cheer up the villagers. Their journey was the starting point for the nation's largest relocation program after that of the Three Gorges Hydro-Power Project, which involved the relocation of 1.27 million.

According to the government, from Wednesday until 30th September, about 60,000 people will be relocated. At the farewell scene, a fleet of 15 coaches carried the villagers while 34 trucks loaded with the villagers' belongings was followed by a number of ambulances with the village's elderly, unwell and pregnant.

The speed of relocation, 60,000 people within 50 days, may set a new standard.