The per capita living floor space for the migrants has reached 25 square meters, and most of the housing is built of brick and concrete. Half of the houses are storied buildings.

The new houses have met average living standards or moderately better-off living standards, said Qi Lin, head of the Resettlement Affairs Bureau of Three Gorges Project Committee.

According to Qi, provinces and municipalities with migrants from the Three-Gorge areas, especially those with comparatively developed economy, have taken a wide range of measures to help the migrants in building new houses.

These include granting each migrant a house construction subsidy between 1,000 yuan (US$120) and 5,000 yuan, or giving migrants tax exemptions if they choose to build their own houses or to buy idle flats in their new hometowns, said Qi.

Most of the migrants have been allotted about 0.067 hectares of arable land per person in the resettlement regions, and the land is all high-yield farmland with necessary water-control works, Qi said.

Migrants moved from the mountainous region along the Yangtze River to Chenzhou in central Hunan Province are deeply influenced by the strong market economy atmosphere there and have learned from local residents to build greenhouses for growing vegetables, and make money by selling the vegetables to residents in nearby towns, Xinhua said.

Construction on the world's largest hydropower project in Yichang in Hubei Province began in 1993.

(21DNN.com 01/15/2001)