Zhang Fei Temple Digitally Remastered 108
gtaylor writes: "The Globe and Mail reports that the Three Gorges Zhang Fei Temple in China will be disassembled before the Three Gorges dam is completed (which will flood the area where the temple stands now), and reassembled somewhere drier. Meanwhile, the Canadian National Research Council has sent over some techs who have scanned the whole complex into super-accurate 3-D models as to be sure of rebuilding the temples precisely as they were."
Does the panama canal suck? (Score:2, Insightful)
When you alter nature it has negative effects on something... its benefits just need to be weighed against the negatives.
Millions of people may have to move, but it is obviously of some benefit or wouldn't be being built. Like moving people off an island and declaring it deserted so it can be used as a US military base, damning some other river somewhere, or knocking weeks off travel time by building a canal.. it causes big trouble for some people but benefits so many more.
I don't see how this dam can be equated to the Taliban blowing up budhist statues.
Re:three gorges (Score:2, Insightful)
Abu Simbel (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:They should put the 3D Info online (Score:1, Insightful)
"Imagine if they had all this available online, and anyone could explore the ancient cities/structures without all the traveling and expense."
I hate to break this to you, but seeing a scaled down 3d Computer model of the Acroplis and Parthenon is nothing like going to Greece and seeing the thing in real life for yourself. On the computer you get no sense of scale, like when you go there in a person and see it for yourself. This will not save people money travelling. It just does not compare to see a Mayan temple on a 2d computer screen pretending to be 3d dimensional and seeing it in real life.
Re:this brings up a philosophical point (Score:2, Insightful)
Before I begin, let me state that I am fundamentally opposed to the Three Gorges project!
Firstly, their human rights record is atrocious, but that has nothing to do with the Three Gorges Project per se, and I don't understand why you mention it in this context (it may also pay to note that the USA executed 85 people in 2000, so its hands are hardly clean (I realise this is far below the scale of China))
Secondly, Large damming projects have often involved moving sections of the population. This is not unique to the Three Gorges Project. in that light, the archaeological treasures (i.e. things not readily moveable) need to have a high priority placed on them (not to the exclusion of the currently living human population). What hasn't been said is what compensation the Chinese government is making to the people it is moving. Without this information, it is hard to say whether they are being unreasonable or not.
thirdly, to say China cares more about tourisim than its billions [sic, its about 1.3 billion] of people is a little odd. Tourism is a revenue generating process (typically FOR the people). Surely by promoting tourism (ideally in a slightly more eco-friendly way than Three Gorges) they are demonstrating that they care for the economic well being of the local people?
Regards