Yangcheng Evening News (Yangcheng wanbao), Oct. 27, 2002: Now that local residents and a host of historical relics have been relocated to higher ground, demolition authorities will blast what remains of the ancient town of Fengjie to make way for the Three Gorges dam reservoir.

The levelling – scheduled for Nov. 4 at 10:50 a.m. – is deemed necessary to facilitate ship navigation once the reservoir floods the area, reports the Yangcheng Evening News (Yangcheng wanbao). Domestic and international media are expected to witness the razing, but, laments the Guangzhou-based newspaper, “It is a great pity to see the ancient city disappear forever.”

Fengjie has played host to almost all of China’s greatest poets and many beautiful poems have been composed there, earning the 2,000-year-old city its nickname, “Poets’ Town.”

Fengjie is considered one of China’s most significant cities not only because of its archaeological treasures, unique mountains and picturesque landscape, but is renown also for its “cultural ethos and miraculous power drawn from heaven and earth,” writes Yangcheng Evening News.

The explosion that will level Fengjie will be the largest of its kind in China’s history. More than 30 buildings with a total floor area of 150,000 square metres are to be blasted simultaneously, including the districts of Guodichi, Xiaonanmen, and Shajiaxiang, in the old town. One of the greater challenges the demolition team will face is a 13-storey bank, the tallest building in the reservoir area, which houses an underground vault.

Some 1.6 tons of explosives lodged in 30,000 holes throughout the city will be used to level Fengjie, reports Cai Jinxian, head of the demolition team for the People’s Liberation Army’s engineering corps. This same team is responsible for most of the demolition work in the Three Gorges reservoir area, including the first blasts in Fengjie earlier this year that marked the formal start of the Three Gorges cleanup campaign.

Also see: Reservoir cleanup begins with a bang