Qualla: Shihmen Dam https://qualla.com/shihmen-dam en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:38 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/q/j/shihmen-dam-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Shihmen Dam https://qualla.com/shihmen-dam Shihmen Dam: Introduction https://qualla.com/shihmen-dam/ Photo credit David 75610, CC BY-SA 3.0. The phrase "the Shihmen Reservoir is releasing flood water" has become, in Taiwan, a euphemism for "your fly is open." It is a joke born of familiarity -- Shihmen's spillway opens so often that the image has lodged itself in the national consciousness. But behind the humor lies a serious story of ambition, transformation, and an engineering marvel slowly losing the fight against nature.

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Image: David 75610 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/q/j/shihmen-dam-wp/wsqj-shihmen-dam-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Shihmen Dam: A Plateau Thirsting for Water https://qualla.com/shihmen-dam/ Photo credit Peellden, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Taoyuan Plateau has never had a reliable water source of its own. Since 1680, farmers dug thousands of artificial ponds to capture rainfall, cobbling together an irrigation system from sheer persistence. When the Japanese colonial government built the Taoyuan Canal in 1928, d...

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Image: Peellden | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/q/j/shihmen-dam-wp/wsqj-shihmen-dam-a-plateau-thirsting-for-water.mp3 0:06 2 full Shihmen Dam: Morrison-Knudsen Builds a Mountain https://qualla.com/shihmen-dam/ Photo credit Terry850324, CC BY-SA 4.0. The American firm Morrison-Knudsen, which had helped build Hoover Dam, oversaw construction of the 133-meter-high rockfill embankment. Typhoons interrupted work repeatedly, but by December 1960 the river had been diverted through a tunnel and a concrete cofferdam -- notably the f...

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Image: Terry850324 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/q/j/shihmen-dam-wp/wsqj-shihmen-dam-morrison-knudsen-builds-a-mountain.mp3 0:06 3 full Shihmen Dam: Doubling the Harvest https://qualla.com/shihmen-dam/ Photo credit peellden, CC BY-SA 3.0. The dam's primary mission was irrigation, and it delivered. Some 22,000 hectares of new farmland came into production, bringing the total to 57,000 hectares. Year-round water releases enabled additional rice harvests, more than doubling Taoyuan's annual agricultural output and ra...

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Image: peellden | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/q/j/shihmen-dam-wp/wsqj-shihmen-dam-doubling-the-harvest.mp3 0:06 4 full Shihmen Dam: The River Fights Back https://qualla.com/shihmen-dam/ Photo credit Peellden, CC BY-SA 4.0. Sedimentation has been Shihmen's defining challenge. Deforestation, road construction, and agriculture in the steep watershed send an estimated 2.9 million tonnes of sediment into the reservoir each year. Capacity has dropped by more than a third, erasing 23 years from the dam's ...

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Image: Peellden | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/q/j/shihmen-dam-wp/wsqj-shihmen-dam-the-river-fights-back.mp3 0:06 5 full Shihmen Dam: A Monument Still Standing https://qualla.com/shihmen-dam/ Photo credit Hakkatw, CC BY-SA 3.0. More than 160,000 tourists visit Shihmen each year, many timing their trips to watch the spectacular floodwater releases. The reservoir remains one of Taiwan's most visited scenic spots, a place where engineering meets landscape on a dramatic scale. Today Shihmen supplies water f...

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Image: Hakkatw | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/q/j/shihmen-dam-wp/wsqj-shihmen-dam-a-monument-still-standing.mp3 0:06 6 full