Hydropower plays a central role in China’s electricity generation mix with a share of 14.6%. Older plants, such as the Shilongba power plant in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, which went online in May 1912, still play an important role. What makes this hydropower plant so unique is that it is still generating electricity reliably, partly using the original infrastructure. The generator still bears the emblem of ‘J.M. VOITH Heidenheim, 1910’. Originally, the power station played an essential role in the industrialisation of the region, later ­powering private buildings. Today, after being expanded several times in the past century, the power plant has four sets of machines with a total installed capacity of 7,300 kilowatts.