Focus Insights

　　“A port can raise a city.” Yichang, a city flourishing with water, now is striding forward to a modern megacity with its unique advantages.

　　Three Gorges Hub Port Comes into Being

　　Every morning in Yichang, the rising sun always finds the ports and wharfs quite busy. As the quay cranes load containers  up and down, various kinds of goods depart here with the thriving vitality of Yichang to the owners on the other shore.

　　Yichang plays an important role in the new round development of the Yangtze River economic belt, for it connects the east and the west of Yangtze River Basin. It is no exaggeration to say that only when Yichang is unobstructed, the Yangtze River will be OK, and only when the Yangtze River is unobstructed, so will the whole country.

　　We shall take full advantages of the favorable location of the Three Gorges Hub Port as the pivotal one in the Yangtze River Basin to open the door of the west region to the eastern and central regions. Only by doing this can we open the gradient transferring door of the eastern industries along the Yangtze River to give full impetus to the development of the areas along the river or even the whole country.

　　The Three Gorges Hub Port is the general name of the important ports in Yichang. Yichang takes full advantage of the Yangtze River region and it has initially formed the development pattern of “one axis, two wings, nine zones and one center”. The Hub Port takes the Yangtze River as the main development axis, the Qingjiang River and Xiangxi River as the two wings of shipping development, and develops Maoping Work Zone,Baiyang Work Zone and other seven zones as core work zones and the Three Gorge Port as international cruise centre. Besides, the Three Gorges Hub Port will be divided into Yichang Harbor District, Zigui Harbor District, Yidu Harbor District and Zhijiang Harbor District. More attention will be paid to the planning of core work zone of each harbor district. Then we can realize the development goal of constructing the strong port along the Yangtze River and promoting the development of Yichang through port.

　　In the future, under the guidance of the new standard of the international transportation centre , Yichang will construct large modern ports, quickly improve roads, stock yards, storage and other supporting facilities, open international airlines and set up public information platform to connect the whole world. In addition, we will also strengthen financial and policy support, construct large, deep and specialized channel and port facilities in high standard, high level and high quality to improve the equipped level of port berths.

　　Ready to Promote Port Economy Development

　　It is the ideal state that the ports foster a city while the city promotes the development of ports by taking uses of various advantages of regional economy which is gradually shown in the Three Gorges Hub Port.

　　With the development of the ports, the port-surrounding industry of Yichang has developed rapidly to achieve new breakthrough. According to statistics, the annual waterway transport demand of the major port-surrounding enterprises in Yichang has reached 35 million tons at present.Thus, the most important premise of realizing the common prosperity both for port and Yichang is to optimize the development of ports and construct port-surrounding industry in the Three Gorges Hub Port.

　　With the boosting of the tourism in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area and the implementing of the Western Hubei Ecological Culture Tourism Cycle strategy, Yichang\'s tourism will have a broad prospect. Targeting to building the Three Gorges Port as “Hub Port” and “Star City”, this will become an important support to create the Three Gorges International Tourism Brand for Yichang City.

　　In addition, we will further enhance the function of transshipment over the dam in Three Gorges. The cargo flow in the Three Gorges will reach 260 million tons in 2030, according to the research of cross-section capacity of the Three Gorges Water Control Project made by the Institute of Comprehensive Transportation of the National Development and Reform Commission and Yangtze River Aviation Management Bureau. The development of shipping industry in the Yangtze River promotes the prosper of Yichang and calls for more large-scale, specialized and modern ports to undertake the historical mission of the permanent transshipment over the dam in the Three Gorges.

　　“Three Gorges Hub Port” plays a more important role in promoting regional cooperation and development. With a larger  transportation of the export and import materials in the west region of China, an optimal access to the sea is needed. The hub port connects the East and the West closely, shaping an international“New Silk Road”. This priority of the hub port attracts a large number of logistics, business, capital and information which further promote the boom of the port and the city.

　　The construction of ports will drive the development of wharf building,  storage, mechanic manufacturing, channel, ship building and other industries to further stimulate the need of goods exchange and consumer goods so that more employment can be provided, which is helpful to the concentration of population and the increase of the city economy. The mutual development of port and Yichang City can infinitely maximize  the economic benefits.

　　The Three Gorges Hub Port not only brings enormous economic interests, also beautifies our environment. With the construction of the hub port, the workboat wharfs along the Yangtze River in the center of the city will be gradually removed and more and more city lakes and waterscapes will be built in the city. The hub port will shoulder more eco-cultivation, landscaping responsibilities and we can witness greener mountains, clearer water and more beautiful scenery along the Yangtze River in future.