According to the Overall Construction Planning of Yichang New District, Yichang New District of the future will consist of two parts covering an area of 220 square kilometers, the land for construction and the land unfit for construction. The first part is designed to be the land for construction with an area of 105 square kilometers (60 square kilometers will be located in the northern side of the Yangtze River; the rest in the southern side.); the second part is about the size of 115 square kilometers which will be composed of mountains and rivers and is unfit for construction. And for the foreseeable future, Yichang, a city on the way to building into a modern megacity, will certainly provide the world a brand-new image with the implementation of the planning.
The construction of the New District will lay a solid foundation for the future megacity.
So what is the purpose of building Yichang New District? As the Planning indicates, the construction of Yichang New District will be of great significance to the objective requirements of the improvement of Yichang City’s publicity as an open-door of Hubei Province to the world, the implementation of the development strategy decided by Hubei Provincial Government, quickening the pace of building Yichang into the modern megacity, and promoting the scientific and leapfrog development in Yichang.
Yichang, due to its rich hydraulic resources, is the site of the Three Gorges Project as well as a world-famous tourism city for hydropower stations. The number of tourists at home and abroad reached more than twenty-six million in 2012, that of overseas visitors amounting to three hundred thirty thousand. Therefore, it is necessary to quicken the pace of building Yichang New District, for it conforms to its own development needs and is capable of lifting Yichang’s image as the open-door of Hubei Province to the world.
And it was instructed by the Hubei Provincial Government that Yichang takes the lead in transformation itself into a provincial sub-central/regional central city and the core city of ecological cultural tourism under the scope of Western Hubei Province, which can play the role in influencing the other cities in Hubei. According to a decision made by Hubei Provincial Government, by 2015, Yichang City Proper shall have covered a built area of 200 square kilometers with a population of two million, reaching the goal of transforming from a big city to a megacity. The construction of Yichang New District, together with coordinative development of urban-rural area, is conductive to further improve the comprehensive service function of Yichang central city, which may lay a solid foundation for Yichang transformation into a modern megacity.
Yichang New District, in which many key state-level industrial parks such as Yichang National High-tech Industrial Development Zone, Three Gorges Tourist Resort Zone, Three Gorges Logistics Park are within the confines of the area, punctuated by the effect of radiation on provincial industrial parks of neighboring counties and districts like Zhijiang County-level City, Yidu County-level City and Dangyang County-level City, will be in a leading position in the process of building Yichang into an “Economic Corridor by the Yangtze River with Annual Output Value of One Thousand Billion RMB”. To build Yichang New District is beneficial to bring about the reasonable effect of agglomeration of population, industries, infrastructure and factors of production, to enhance the regional economic comprehensive strength and to promote the scientific and leapfrog development in Yichang.
Yichang is ready for the construction of Yichang New District.
Experts in related fields also support the assertion that the opportunities and conditions for building Yichang New District are ripe, the reasons as follows: multi-opportunities have created favored conditions for the construction; the growing comprehensive strength has laid a good foundation for the construction; its location as the prominent transportation hubs for Hubei, Chongqing and Sichuan has offered a broad space for the construction; abundant hydraulic resources bear Yichang with unique advantage as against other cities in China. According to the Planning, Hubei Province at present is in the period of “golden decade” for development, central government now in-depth advancing the rise strategy of Central China, promoting the work in an all-around manner such as the follow-up work of the Three Gorges Project, the regional development planning of Wuling Mountain Area, and the new round of planning of poverty alleviation, and city agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River emerging as one important growth pole in national economic development, not to mention the speeding up of international and domestic industrial transfer. With the help of multiple major historic opportunities, Yichang City now is confident and capable of realizing the set goals of building Yichang New District in the acceleration period of industrialization and urbanization.
For the past few years, Yichang has maintained high-speed growth in economy, whose comprehensive strength ranks the second in Hubei Province. And in 2012, the gross regional products in Yichang reached 250.89 billion RMB, the revenues of local public finance budget 15.32 billion RMB and urbanization rate amounted to fifty-three percent. It has been estimated that by 2016 the first two numbers above will have doubled as against that in 2012, while urbanization rate will reach over sixty percent, and the proportion of the economic aggregate in Yichang takes fifteen percent of that in Hubei Province. Based on high comprehensive development levels in economy and considerable development potential, Yichang has faith in the rapid and sound development of the future Yichang New District.
According to the Planning, Yichang New District will be the regional logistics centre and transportation hub, providing convenient service of river, land and air transportation extending in all directions; for example so-called “golden waterway of the Yangtze River” of twenty kilometers winds along this district; it is the intersection place of Wuhan-Yichang Highway, Jingmen- Yichang Highway, Shanghai-Chongqing Highway, Jiangnan Special Highway for the Three Gorges transportation, Yichang-Wanzhou Railway, Wuhan-Yichang Railway; in the vicinity distribute the Yichang East Railway Station, Yichang Passenger Transportation Center, Deepwater Harbor Wharf, Yichang Passenger Port, Three Gorges International Airport. Because of these, it enjoys tremendous development space.
Yichang is a city with a long history, profound culture and beautiful scenery; apart from that, it is also the site of plenty of magnificent hydropower stations like Three Gorges Dam and Gezhouba Dam and of largest number of 5A tourist attractions in Hubei Province. For this reason, it has been successively awarded numerous honors and titles in recent years, such as “National Sanitary City”,“National Model City for Environmental Protection”, “National Civilized City”, “National Forest City”, “National Garden City”, etc. Since Yichang New District is adjacent to a few natural reserves, it is feasible to build a new riverside ecological district that is fitting for living, visiting and starting business, and in the meantime, to establish an ecological protection system with the urban green barrier and the feature of “a city surrounded by mountains on three sides while on one side the Yangtze River winding through”, in accordance with the concept of “composite city”.
The structural layout of the Yichang New District of the future will be stretching along the Yangtze River.
Yichang New District of the future will consist of two parts covering an area of 220 square kilometers, the land for construction and the land unfit for construction. The first part is designed to be the land for construction with an area of 105 square kilometers (60 square kilometers will be located in the northern side of the Yangtze River; the rest in the southern side); the second part is about the size of 115 square kilometers will be composed of mountains and rivers which is unfit for construction.
And the structural layout of Yichang New District of the future would be made up of “one belt, several corridors, ten areas and multiple centers”. “One belt” refers to the development belt alongside the Yangtze River; “several corridors” equivalent to several urban development corridors; “ten areas” means ten areas each with different function; “multiple centers” equal to a few centers of the future Yichang New District; in other words, the first center of Yichang New District of the future is Jiangnan center (Juanqiaohe Convention Center), the second is the Yichang East Railway Station center, and the last one is the old town center.
The construction of Yichang New District will set up the framework for the future megacity.
According to the Planning, the short-term goals (2013-2017) of building Yichang New District are that we shall strive to “produce effect in one year, to set up an image in three years, and to start to take shape in five years” in line with the principle of taking priority to “infrastructure, public facility, residential housing for relocation and ecological protection” over other causes. And by 2015, Yichang New District will have been a new land with one hundred square kilometers of infrastructure, one hundred and sixty kilometers of newly-built main road, newly increasing ten million square meters of housing, six square kilometers of public lawn, and the framework of a megacity covering an area of two hundred square kilometers. Still, by 2017, or more precisely, five years after the initiation of Yichang New District, we shall have completed the construction of this modern new district, then the road network is basically formed, the large public service facilities are put into use, and the ecological and environmental quality is greatly improved.
And as the medium-term goal (2018-2030) of the Yichang Urban Master Planning (2011-2030) suggests, by 2030, the urban size in Yichang will cover an area of three hundred square kilometers with three million permanent population. We will by then work out a new urban master planning on the basis of the scale of Yichang in 2030, so that an in-depth construction of Yichang New District can be continued in a systematic way. The long-term goal is to build Yichang into a city with urban framework of “five million permanent population within the confines of five hundred square kilometers”.
In terms of industry orientation, we will build industrial transformation and upgrading demonstration zone. The industrial distribution of Yichang New District will be divided into five sections including high and new technology, production service, commercial services, consumption services and leisure tourism. And Yichang New District will be in the leading position to promote the development of development zones and industrial parks alongside the Yangtze River, to expand the size of traditional advantage industries, for example, chemical industry, food and beverage industry and electrical energy industry, to make strategic emerging industries including advanced equipment manufacture industry, advanced material industry and bio-pharmaceutical industry grow bigger and stronger, and to reach a breakthrough in developing modern service industries, such as cultural tourism and modern logistics.
We shall build the ecological cultural tourism zone. Based on the famous scenic spots like the Xiling Gorge of the Three Gorges and Three Gorges Dam, we will quicken the pace of building some key tourism projects, such as Three Gorges National Tourist Resort, Three Gorges Cruise Center, and Pinghu Peninsula Comprehensive Service Area for Tourism, and develop tourist package for visiting the Xiling Gorge of the Three Gorges at night. We shall promote the integration between culture and tourism, building regional culture service center, and enriching tourism cultural connotation. Besides, we shall make an effort to improve the service for tourism, extend tourism industry chain and speed up the construction of tourist destinations.
We shall build the exhibition area of the modern composite city. We shall make overall planning, developing in an orderly way, and give full play to the advantage of green mountains and clear waters here, doing a good job in ecological protection, as well as sparing no effort to improve the environment between human and nature, in the light of postmodern philosophy. In addition, we shall use resources economically and intensively, steadily advancing the cause of low carbon environmental protection. And ultimately, we shall attach much importance to the regional symbiosis, coordinative development between the city and industry, and “interaction between industrialization, information, urbanization and agricultural modernization”, and strenuously build Yichang New District into a modern urban area with multiple functions fitting for living, conducting business and ecological management.
We shall build the demonstration area of coordinated development of regions. We shall adopt the strategy of opening up with preferential policy, and cultivate a favorable institutional environment for the transfer of capital, technology and industry. We also shall actively carry out the pilot project of city-rural integration, trying to build Yichang New District into the pilot city of coordinative development of urban-rural area in Hubei Province. Moreover, we shall promote cross-region cooperation, enhancing multi-level synergy with surrounding regions in industry, tourism, and transportation, and quicken the pace of building Yichang into the central city of urban agglomeration of three cities “Yichang, Jingzhou and Jingmen”, the regional tourist distributing center, and the leading force that can drive the development in Western Hubei Province.
The Basic Ways to Construct the New District
The basic ways to scientifically construct Yichang are as follows:
Firstly, we shall plan and guide to orderly promote the construction. With the philosophy of “composite city” and the aim to be famous internationally, to be in leading position in China and to be first-rate in Central China, we shall make the overall planning of Yichang New District at high standard, and make the designing scheme with district planning and district development; put the city, ecology, environment and underground construction first and make industries, production, investment attracting and overground construction second.
Secondly, we shall coordinate the development of city and industries, and synchronize the development of industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agriculture modernization. We shall coordinate the the following items: the development of advanced manufacturing industry and modern service industry, city development and function perfection, industry development and city construction, expanding industries on the basis of parks and prospering the city with industries. We shall improve public services such as eduction, health and culture and promote the synchronous development of industrialization, informationization, urbanization and agriculture modernization.
Thirdly, we shall develop transportation first and promote urban and rural overall development. We shall start the new district development with road construction to accelerate the perfection of new district traffic network and build 15-minute transportation circles within the urban area and 1-hour transportation circles between city and counties. We shall promote the extension of infrastructure, public service and urban civilization to the rural area and promote the comprehensive service function and driving force of the new district to the perimeter zone to coordinate the development of urban and rural area.
Fourthly, we shall coordinate the government leading and market operation. We shall handle the relationship between government and market reasonably, promote the new district development with the market way, market mechanism and the philosophy of “city management”.
Fifthly, we shall keep characteristic development of low carbon and balanced ecology. We shall highlight the ecological civilization construction and make it run through each step of the development such as planning, construction and management to promote production to be intensive and efficient, living space to be livable and moderate and ecology space to be beautiful. In the meantime, we shall plan district eco-environment protection and water system togrther, construct green belt, woodland and landscape gardens, dredge and beautify bodies of water and develop low-carbon ecological community to cultivate city features with unique style.
New District Construction to Be Promoted with Preferential Policy
The Overall Planning approved by the Provincial Government indicates that many preferential policies will support the New District construction and accelerate the speed of the construction.
Firstly, the fiscal policy support will be enhanced. On condition that the law and policy permits, the government will constantly improve the supportive policy towards the New District and lead the key industries and projects to flow to the New District through ways like finance discount at provincial and city level.
Secondly, the policy support of the land use will be enhanced. Provincial Office of Land and Resources will provide preferential policies to the construction land of Yichang New District and ensure enough land in need for key infrastructure, industry and public service projects.
Thirdly, policy support of investment and financing will be increased. We will increase financing channels to attract more social capital into the New District development, construction and management by giving full play to the market mechanism. For the key infrastructure, large public and urban complex projects, related departments of the Provincial Government will provide capital support when actively trying to get central policy support. Industrial projects that are in line with national industrial policy and suitable to settle in the New District will be preferentially arranged in the parks of the New District. The banks and government, banks and enterprises will be promoted to cooperate and sign strategic cooperation and project financing agreement, stimulating financial department to provide the New District with loan preferentially. And the enterprises will be supported to issue enterprise bonds, corporate bonds and medium and short term notes.
Finally, government service system and mechanism will be innovated. Within the legal range, it is strongly suggested that power should be transferred to a lower level or Yichang City should be authorized to perform the administrative examination and approval authority including land, environment and planning evaluation. Yichang will be supported to reduce the city-level administrative examination and approval, optimize the approval process and improve the approval efficiency. City-level administrative examination and approval service resources will be integrated, “green channel” of project approval will also be opened up. For key projects, the service mechanism as “one municipal leader and one special work team in charge of one project” will be implemented. (Reporter Gong Changjun)