Who could have imagined, just twelve years after entering the new millennium, Yichang is once again standing on the threshold of reform and development .

　　Given there are only two megacities-Chongqing and Wuhan-in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River of about 1000km, time has provided Yichang with a marvelous opportunity or more precisely a great responsibility to serve as the connecting link between the two cities.

　　Yichang is only too ready to follow the trend of the times to accept this responsibility that time has granted her.

　　Thanks to the construction of Gezhouba Water Control Project and Three Gorges Water Control Project, Yichang City has stood out like a dazzling star in very short time from numerous cities alongside the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

　　In 1978, the GDP in Yichang was only 1.125 billion RMB, but it exceeded 10 billion RMB in 1993, 100 billion RMB in 2008. And last year the number reached as much as 250.8 billion RMB.

　　Moreover, at the 10th Party Congress of Hubei Province it was instructed that Yichang be transformed into modern megacity as a provincial sub-central/ regional central city in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River that is abundant of hydraulic energy and tourism resources.

　　Leading cadres from the central and the Provincial Government attached great importance to the planning of building Yichang into a modern megacity.

　　Huang Chuping, Secretary of Yichang Municipal Party Committee, also noted in a symposium at the end of last year that in the process of building Yichang into a modern megacity, we need do solid work under the guidance of scientific planning, but what\'s more, we are in need of breaking the old methods and emancipating our minds.

　　For this reason, Yichang Government organized a visit to eight cities of three provinces in October last year. More than one hundred high-rank officials from government at all levels in Yichang took part in the program.

　　And decisions concerning some major issues such as the content, idea, and way related to how to build Yichang into a modern megacity were made in December last year at the Third Plenary Session of the Fifth Municipal Party Committee of Yichang City. At the meeting, the slogan of “a city with large size, high-level development, being agreeable and habitability” became the core content of turning Yichang into a modern megacity.

　　“Large size” is equivalent to building a big city that both its construction area and its population are on a large scale; “high-level development” means we shall attain the goals of establishing various industries big and strong; “being agreeable” is the same as the feeling roused when living in a pleasant and comfortable environment with green mountains and clear waters; “habitability” is none other than the city image that Yichang is a city fit for living.

　　With respect to the idea of development, according to the decisions, we shall adhere to the idea of “post modern, integration the city into the development of industries, co-construction and sharing”; as for the strategy of development, the decisions indicate that we shall adopt the five development ways of “opening-up, innovation, market, talents and coordinative development between urban-rural area”; regarding to development measures, as the decisions suggest, we shall follow the steps of “one object, four platforms, five projects for improving people’s livelihood, six industries with annual output value of 100 billion RMB, and seven reforms and innovation”.

　　How much is the population density in the old town of Yichang? According to official statistics, at its most populated area the density of sixty thousand people per square kilometers is even greater than that in several first-tier cities in China like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

　　Apart from that, quite a few issues such as transportation, housing, population density and enviroment still need to be solved in the old city zone of Yichang.

　　In short, the decision to build Yichang into a megacity conforms to the practical need of the region and the trend of development of history. And we achieve this by means of initiating the construction of Yichang New District and in the meantime lifting the capability of the old town in Yichang.

　　In March of this year, another delegation headed by Mr. Huang went to large cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong to learn about their development experiences and to attract businesses and investment through promotion of Yichang. All this marks the prelude to a series of more publicity activities of Yichang towards investment promotion.

　　The investment promotion activities in Shenzhen, Hongkong, Beijing, Wuhan, and Hainan prove to be a great success, which have drew entrepreneurs’ attention from over four hundred businesses at home and abroad with investment of more than three hundred billion RMB.

　　On August 19, 2013, twenty nine projects with a total investment of 13.75 billion RMB were launched to build the Yichang New District. Some road construction projects, such as Chachang Road, Chengxiang Road and Hanyi Road are regarded as the major projects in the process of turning Yichang into a modern megacity.

　　Shortly five months ago, fifty-one projects with a total investment of 16.7 billion RMB announced their commencement, which marked the beginning of building the Yichang New District.

　　As the Master Planning of Yichang New District suggests, in the future the two areas, the South Area and the North Area, naturally separated by the Yangtze River on both sides, will be joined together by Yiling Yangtze River Bridge, Miaozui Yangtze River Bridge, and Wujiagang Yangtze River Bridge, fulfilling the designers’ dream to turn Yichang into a city with two parts on either side of the Yangtze River.

　　In fast expanding Yichang, road network, public construction, resettlement and ecology are to be developed first. Take the road network for example, cross-district and cross-group city ring network expressway, BRT, low-speed system, greenway system and tiny-cycle system will be built in new district so as to enrich trip modes. Huang Chuping, Secretary of Municipal Party Committee, requires afforestation, beatification and lighting project be vigorously implemented to further improve the quality and image of Yichang.

　　So far, initial success has been achieved in afforestation project. The main trunk roads in urban area acquire a completely new outlook owing to over 9 million trees planted. As for beatification and lighting project, along 7 trunk roads comprehensive improvement is being carried out, covering comprehensive improvement of 122 existing buildings’ facades, landscape-type enclsures set in 30 construction sites that are under construction or planned to be constructed, and lighting of 35 buildings.

　　The basis of industry lies in projects. In August, 117 major projects were started one after another, among which 8 projects are invested over 1 billion RMB. The overall investment amounts to 37.799 billion RMB, while the planned investment is 10.792 billion RMB this year. Jiang Zhengxiong, Director of Yichang Municipal Development and Reform Commission, analyzed that the most outstanding characteristic of projects started in August is the excellent quality. Among the 117 projects, nearly 60 percent belong to “six 100-billion-worth industries”, including 36 equipment manufacturing projects with overall investment of 7.76 billion RMB, 16 food and beverage and bio-medicine projects with overall investment of 6.986 billion RMB, and 9 modern service projects with overall investment of 2.301 billion RMB.

　　“Six 100-billion-worth industries” include fine chemical industry, food and beverage and bio-medicine industry, advanced equipment manufacturing industry, new material industry, modern logistics industry and cultural tourism industry. In May this year, Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government held thematic meeting, studied the development planning of the “six 100-billion-worth industries” and adopted top-level design to it, aiming to speed up the establishment of modern industry system with international standards and Yichang characteristics.

　　On May 16, “Urban Ark” AUV car in Yichang Zhongxing Automobile Co., Ltd. was officially launched; in early July, the second phase of polycrystalline silicon technical renovation was completed in Yichang CSG Polysilicon Co., Ltd. located in Xiaoting Industrial Park; on August 16, caprolactam program with an annual output of 200,000 ton and investment of 5 billion RMB in Hubei Sanning Chemical Co., Ltd. was put into production.

　　The realization of Yichang megacity dream depends on the joint efforts of people from all the 13 counties, cities and districts. On May 9, Huang Chuping, Secretary of Municipal Party Committee, Ma Xuming, Mayor of Yichang, with other related departments directors came to Yidu, promised to spare no gains to help Yidu to become one of national top 100 cities .

　　Besides Yidu, Zhijiang and Dangyang are also trying to become one of national top 100 economic counties. Municipal Party Committee leaders figuratively described 13 counties and High-tech Zone as 14 “little tigers” that drive Yichang to scientifically develop by strides, and as long as all the “little tigers” spare no efforts, the development of Yichang can get strong support.