# Global Times: Why does this mega-project on Yarlung Zangbo River make way for fish?

- Link: https://www.thailand-business-news.com/pr-news/global-times-why-does-this-mega-project-on-yarlung-zangbo-river-make-way-for-fish
- Published: 2026-10-18T17:09:00+07:00
- Author: PR Newswire

BEIJING, Oct. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — "Building an ecological civilization concerns
the well-being of the people and the future of the nation." 

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China(
CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, pointed 
out: "Respecting, adapting to, and protecting nature is essential for building China
into a modern socialist country in all respects."

As outlined in the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for national economic and social
development, securing major breakthroughs in strategic tasks of overall importance
to Chinese modernization and making major new progress in the Beautiful China Initiative
are set as key objectives.

The Global Times is launching a series of articles titled "BeautifulChinaING." From
the perspectives of the beauty of nature, the beauty of system and the beauty of
lifestyle, the series uses both Chinese and international cases as entry points.
Through field reporting and video storytelling, it explores how green development
has become a defining feature of Chinese modernization while showcasing China’s 
role as a responsible major country providing global public goods. 

In this installment, we turn our focus to the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, where engineers,
scientists and conservationists are working together to explore a new balance between
hydropower development and ecological protection, ensuring the free migration of
rare fish species in the Yarlung Zangbo River.

In the deep canyon in the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, a hydropower
station about 400 meters long and more than 100 meters high has released the tremendous
force of the upstream river water. As the dam opened to discharge floodwaters, the
surging water dropped by more than 60 meters, providing a solution to nearly 26 
percent of electricity demand in Southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region. This
mega hydropower station, known as the Huaneng Zangmu Hydropower Station, ended the
history of Xizang region relying on diesel for large-scale power supply.

Standing in front of the dam, design engineer Zhang Lianming was filled with pride.
For him, this hydropower station not only benefits people’s livelihoods, but also
carries a special mission: in order to help the fish move freely between the upstream
and downstream sections of the dam, a fishway was designed beside this mega-project.
Since the hydropower station began operation in 2015, the fishway has helped about
570,000 fish "swim upstream."

"The environment means well-being, the green mountains mean beauty and blue sky 
also represents happiness." Zhang said in an interview with the Global Times, adding
that when he saw that this water conservancy project not only delivers "green electricity"
to thousands of households, but also makes the surrounding mountains greener, waters
clearer, and fish and birds gather in the area, he has increasingly felt the meaning
of this saying.

**Swim back happily**

Sun Chao, who is in charge of the Zangmu Hydropower Station, often goes to the fishway
monitoring room to check the records of fish "crossing" the dam. When he sees fish
successfully migrating back upstream through the glass curtain wall, a smile spreads
across his face. "We feel about fish the same way fishing enthusiasts do," Sun said."
The difference is that their happiness comes from catching fish, while ours comes
from seeing fish swim back."

Xizang region is an important ecological security barrier for the country and is
also known as a "gene bank of species." Its natural environment is unique, highly
sensitive and fragile – a fact clearly reflected in the fish populations of the 
Yarlung Zangbo River. The seven fish species that pass through the fishway at the
station are unique. Two of these species, the black-spotted catfish and the Lhasa
schizothoracin, are protected as nationally second-class protected animals.

"Preventing hydropower stations from becoming barriers to the free movement of rare
fish has special ecological significance," Zhang said. When a dam blocks a river,
the channels through which fish communicate are also cut off. Their living environment
becomes more fragmented, which is detrimental to the integrity of aquatic ecosystems
and to genetic exchange among fish populations.

However, fish native to the Yarlung Zangbo River are not typical migratory species;
some are only semi-migratory. Once a hydropower station is built, they may simply
adapt to their new surroundings and no longer return to their birthplace, Zhang 
pointed out. 

The characteristics of fish in Yarlung Zangbo River made the design engineer realize
that ensuring unobstructed fish migration had to be a key objective of the station.
Only in this way could the fish mate freely, preserving the genetic strength of 
the river’s rare fish populations.

Moreover, to help ensure that the Yarlung Zangbo River is filled with more high-
quality fish species, a stock enhancement and release project for breeding rare 
fish seedlings from the river has also been implemented at the Zangmu Hydropower
Station.

"The project has continued for 12 years, and so far, 1.97 million fish have been
released," Sun calculated. "The construction of this large-scale fast-flowing fish
stock enhancement and release station cost 48 million yuan ($7.10 million), the 
construction of the fishway cost about 360 million yuan ($53.27 million), and annual
fry-breeding costs are nearly 7 million yuan ($1.04 million)."

"This hydropower station not only provides energy security, but also continues to
invest heavily in taking on the vital responsibility of protecting the ecology of
the plateau," he stressed.

**‘Leap over the dragon gate’**

At the station, which stands more than 100 meters high, it is already difficult 
for an ordinary person to climb from the foot of the dam to the top. For fish in
the Yarlung Zangbo River, swimming upstream across it is an even greater challenge.
Relying on ingenious design, the builders have helped the fish successfully "leap
over the dragon gate."

From the outside, the station’s fishway looks no different from an ordinary diversion
canal. The zigzagging artificial channel resembles a "hanging river," connecting
the upstream and downstream sides of the dam. But a closer look reveals many hidden
features inside: cement walls are arranged in alternating patterns to create a winding
waterway effect.

According to Zhang, the fishway consists of an inlet, an open-channel section crossing
the dam, an outlet, and an observation and research room. Inside the open channel
are fishway pools with a gradient of 2 percent. Every time the fishway rises 10 
meters, a rest pool is provided for the fish, with the water speed in the pool controlled
between 0.9 and 1.2 meters per second. A water-supply branch pipe is installed at
the inlet, along with a flow-regulating valve, to create the optimal flow speed 
for attracting fish.

"Fish enjoy the sensory stimulation brought by flowing water, and suitable water
flow can attract them into the fishway," said Zhang. In his view, the key to the
fishway’s success lies in respecting the fish’s natural instincts. 

To this end, the design team built a scale-model fishway and captured fish from 
the river to conduct multiple flow-velocity tests. After six years of repeated experiments,
the team finally determined that an inlet flow velocity of 0.92 to 1.2 meters per
second was the "comfort zone" for the upstream migration of fish.

During the research and development process, members of the design team traveled
to the US and Canada to learn from mature fishway projects.

During their research, they found that most fish in overseas rivers are carnivorous
migratory fish, which are stronger and can migrate in rivers with steeper gradients.
As a result, fishways overseas generally have a larger lifting angle, which means
they can be built over a shorter distance. 

In the Yarlung Zangbo River, however, the fish are mostly cold-water species with
slow growth cycles and weaker swimming ability. Therefore, fishways built in the
river need a smaller lifting angle.

This entire cross-disciplinary study of the ecology and behavior of fish in the 
Yarlung Zangbo River was compiled by the dam design team into a monograph. The project
also won first prize in the 2023 Science and Technology Award in Xizang. 

"When the fishway at Zangmu Hydropower Station was completed, it was the highest-
altitude and largest fish-passage ecological and environmental protection project
in China, breaking the long-standing convention that fish passes would no longer
be considered for dams over 40 meters high," Zhang said. 

He believes the successful application of the fishway in Zangmu station has very
important guiding significance for the future construction of fishways at high-altitude
hydropower stations and for the protection of rare aquatic organisms, and it also
plays a positive role in protecting fragile ecological environment in Xizang.

**‘Fish face recognition’**

Now, the fishway at Zangmu station has not only become a "distribution hub" for 
fish in the Yarlung Zangbo River, but also a "research station" for monitoring the
river’s ecological condition.

In the fishway observation room, a smart monitoring system works like an "electronic
toll station" on a highway, constantly and accurately collecting information on 
migrating fish as they pass through.

"The fact that 570,000 fish have passed upstream through the fishway is backed by
data," said Yang Xiaocheng, director of the safety and environmental protection 
department at the station. He specially showed Global Times reporters video footage
recorded by the station on a day in May, in which large numbers of fish were seen
racing upstream along the fishway toward the dam. 

The scene was truly spectacular. "Every year from March to June is the spawning 
season for fish in the Yarlung Zangbo River, and it is also the peak period for 
migration."

Since the station began operation, visualizing and quantifying changes in ecosystem
in the Yarlung Zangbo River has been an important task for the station. 

"At first, we assigned staff on fixed duty," Yang said. Later, an AI system developed
based on years of footage from the fishway was put into operation. According to 
the introduction, this system uses optical and sonar technologies to identify key
features of migrating fish, such as fin characteristics and swimming posture, thereby
recognizing and recording the fish’s "identity information," with an accuracy rate
of 95 percent, according to Yang. 

In addition, this "fish face recognition" system also records information such as
migration time and fishway water temperature. By combining and analyzing these data,
it evaluates the effectiveness of the fishway under different conditions. These 
data are also shared with domestic research institutions for studies on fish behavior,
and are eventually fed back to other hydropower stations in China. 

In recent years, tagged fish released in previous years have been found in the section
where the Nyang River and the Yarlung Zangbo River meet, about 200 kilometers downstream
of the Zangmu Hydropower Station. This fully proves that the fry artificially released
by the station have successfully adapted to the wild environment.

"From the monitoring results, the fish population in the middle reaches of the Yarlung
Zangbo is very stable, and has not decreased, because of the construction of the
hydropower station. On the contrary, the aquatic ecology and animal-plant life in
the entire middle gorge section of the Yarlung Zangbo River have shown positive 
changes," Yang said.

At the same time, monitoring has shown that animals that live alongside water, such
as otters and mergansers, are appearing more and more around the Zangmu Hydropower
Station. 

Harmony between humans and water, and coexistence among all things, is not impossible.
Such a beautiful picture of ecological civilization is taking shape on the Yarlung
Zangbo River, Zhang added.

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