Located along the south bank of the New Qinhuai River in the Yuhua District, Nanjing City, the Tiexinqiao Water Experiment Center is 15km away from the downtown with a total area of 265,000 m2 (about 400mu). Approved by Nanjing Municipal Government in December 1983, a wasteland of 180,000 m2 was first bought for use as a scientific research experimental base. In 2001, an additional piece of nearby land of 85,000 m2 was purchased. There are now more than 20 large-scaled testing halls in the Center, including the Back Water Zone Testing Hall for the Three-Gorge Project, the Dam Site Testing Hall for the Three-Gorge Project, the Hydro-Power Testing Hall, the Navigation Testing Hall, the Coastal Engineering Testing Hall, the New Yongding River Testing Hall, the Sedimentation Testing Hall, the Oujiang River Estuary Testing Hall, the Hanjiang River Testing Hall, the Estuary Training Testing Hall, the Huaihe River Testing Hall.

During the recent construction of this national key research center, a batch of testing halls, such as the Hydraulics Testing Hall, the Testing Hall of the Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River, and the Bohai Bay Testing Hall, was built up. Testing facilities like the Absorption Devices and Control and Analysis System of Secondary Backward Waves, the Sedimentation Analysis System with Under-Water Dynamic Positioning (MD-DSS) and Flow Field Measuring System were purchased and installed in addition to the research and development of the Intelligentized Auto-Control System of flumes for sedimentation tests and the upgrading of Test Measurement and Control System for large hydraulic engineering models.