CHONGQING, China -- Worried about fallout from its gargantuan project to dam the mighty Yangtze River, China is creating a new province centered on this smoggy river city deep in China's interior.
Awaiting only formal approval in March from China's rubber-stamp Parliament, Chongqing and three neighboring districts are breaking away from Sichuan province to form a province of their own with a population of 30 million in an area three times the size of Maryland.
Like China's three other mega-cities -- Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai -- Chongqing is to become a provincial-level city, or "zhixiashi" in official parlance. Its mayor will have the rank of governor, and it will win control over personnel and finances, as well as tax concessions that could help it join the ranks of China's wealthy cities.
But any prosperity that accompanies the new status is likely to be swallowed up, at least initially, by the challenges stemming from the Three Gorges dam. The world's largest hydroelectric project could help tame the Yangtze, which flows close to Chongqing, and provide badly needed electricity. Critics say it will quickly silt up and ruin countless cultural treasures.
China is redrawing its political map to help solve two other problems related to the dam: water quality and resettlement.
More than 1 million people will be forced to relocate next year when the Yangtze is dammed and the river starts rising. Much of the flooded area will be in Chongqing's new province, but official reports indicate that the project is bogged down by corruption.
In addition, Chongqing will sit at the head of the dam's 350-mile-long reservoir. Unless the city installs billions of dollars in pollution equipment, its wastewater could turn the lake into a cesspool.
The new province will be an odd marriage of industrial and rural China.
While the three adjoining districts -- Wanxian, Qianjiang and Fuling -- are impoverished mountainous areas, Chongqing has long been China's most important inland city. It was famous as China's temporary capital during World War II when it was known as Chungking, and today boasts a population of 15 million.
The heart of the city is wedged on a peninsula formed by the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers. Unlike most Chinese cities, its extremely rugged terrain keeps bicycles off the streets, forcing people to walk, ride crowded buses or take the cable cars that stretch from one river bank to the other.
