When a team of Soviet engineers recommended that China build a massive dam on the Yellow River in Henan province in 1954, they thought they were helping their communist comrades. Instead, they were sowing the seeds of a controversy that continues to rage a half-century later.
When it accepted the advice and completed the 713.2-metre-long, 106-metre-high dam in 1960, the central government sparked an intense struggle between those who live above and below the dam.
People upstream complain that silting behind the dam is causing disastrous floods, while downstream residents believe the dam provides critical flood protection and much-needed electricity.
Shaanxi farmer Feng Wenhua and wife Wang Xiuxia are among the thousands who say the dam at Sanmenxia in Hunan has made their lives miserable.
They live in Huayin county's Fengdong village, 10km inland from the Wei River. Last August, after 20 days of nonstop rain, the Wei broke its banks and flooded the surrounding area, including their home and their 13-acre plot of soybeans and peanuts.
Mr Feng and Ms Wang were among the thousands forced to flee to higher ground. The floods ravaged Shaanxi, leaving more than 40 people dead, 46,000 homes destroyed and an estimated 4.76 million hectares of farmland inundated. The damage was estimated at more than 4 billion yuan.