GUANGZHOU, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Xiong Deqing and his wife now regard the village of Mingping as their second hometown, nine years after they moved away from southwest China's Chongqing Municipality to make way for a hydropower project.

The couple operate a pigeon farm in Mingping. Every day, Xiong scrubs and dries hundreds of pigeon diapers while his wife Liao Guoxing feeds the pigeons and collects eggs from pigeon houses.

Nine years ago, Xiong and his family moved to Mingping in south China's Guangdong Province to make way for the Three Gorges Project. Along with them went 60 neighbors from 16 families.

Construction on the Three Gorges Project, the world's largest hydropower project, started in 1994 and was completed in 2009.

Xiong and his neighbors are among some 1.1 million people who had to relocate to make way for the project.

Life was not easy at the time, Xiong said, recalling when they first arrived in Mingping.

"It took me a long time to adapt to it," Xiong said.

Soon after he settled down in Mingping, Xiong contracted 30 mu (2 hectares) of land to plant vegetables. However, he suffered a setback after using planting methods that would not work in the region's warm climate.

"I tried to grow cabbage, lettuce and broccoli, but I neglected the local weather factor. My crops were drowned by summer storms and I lost nearly 40,000 yuan (6,452 U.S. dollars) in 2005," Xiong said. "That was a great blow to me."

Other migrants also met new problems after moving.