China's highest-altitude hydropower station starts operation

The Yebatan Hydropower Station, the highest-altitude hyperbolic arch dam project under construction in China and a key project under the country's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), has officially started generating electricity with its first two power generation units coming online on Saturday.

This milestone marks significant progress in the development of the integrated "hydro-solar-wind" energy base along the upper reaches of the Jinsha River, the upper section of the Yangtze River, China's longest river.

Located at an elevation of 2,894 meters on the Jinsha River, the Yebatan Hydropower Station straddles Baiyu County in southwest China's Sichuan Province and Gongjue County in the neighboring Xizang Autonomous Region.

With a total installed capacity of 2.24 gigawatts, it is the largest hydropower station that has been commissioned in the upper reaches of the Jinsha River.

The project confronted a range of engineering challenges during construction, including high altitude, extreme cold, a towering arch dam, high ground stress, high burial depth, and a large-span underground powerhouse.

After nearly a decade of construction, the station successfully delivered its first kilowatt-hour of green electricity.

A major technical breakthrough during construction was the development of winter concrete pouring techniques suited to the plateau environment. For the first time in the industry, engineers achieved uninterrupted year-round concrete placement for a high-altitude arch dam.

Moreover, they extracted a 38.1-meter-long concrete core sample, the longest ever recorded in a dam project, providing valuable technical experience for future hydropower development in plateau regions.

"When fully operational, the station will be able to transmit the clean electricity it generated via a ±800 kV direct current transmission line from the upper reaches of the Jinsha River to Hubei Province in central China," said Xia Yong, chief engineer of the Yebatan Hydropower Station project at the state-owned China Huadian Corporation.

China's highest-altitude hydropower station starts operation

China's 2026 box office (including pre-sales) has surpassed 12 billion yuan as of Friday evening, according to the latest data released by online platforms.

The country will also see nearly 20 films being released during the Qingming Festival holiday, which runs from April 4 to 6.

A film analyst said family and kinship became a focus of this year's film season, with three films, namely, "It's OK", "Now I Met Her", and "Sunshine Women's Choir" all telling moving stories about family relationship.

"It's OK", which focuses on the mother-daughter relationship, depicts how a mother and her daughter move from confrontation to mutual understanding by overcoming profound differences in their outlook on life.

"Now I Met Her" tells the story of a rebellious teenage son who embarks on a journey to know his late mom through the diaries she wrote when she was young.

"Sunshine Women's Choir", a production from China's Taiwan region, is a touching story about a group of women who heal each other and reconcile with their past through singing.

"Among domestic productions, three films focus on family and kinship. As a cluster, they are able to generate a collective effect, encouraging audiences to go to cinemas to support and pay attention to films of such themes and styles," said Zhang Jinfeng, chief editor of China Film News.

The suspense film "Game of Identity" follows two persons from vastly different backgrounds who embark on an adventurous "life swap" by accident.

The imported animated film "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" follows brothers Mario and Luigi on an adventure to explore an uncharted galaxy.

"Regarding film supply, we have more films released during this year's Qingming Festival holiday than last year, which can meet diverse appetites of different groups of audience," said Zhang.

China's 2026 box office surpasses 12 bln yuan