The Yangtze River provides drinking water for millions of people living along it from Yibin, Sichuan Province to Shanghai.

　　There are many freighters on the river and large numbers of factories lie on the river banks. At the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, there are even more iron and steel plants and chemical plants.

　　Large quantities of heavy and chemical industries are located along the banks of the Yangtze River. However, this makes people worried. Will the mother river become a sewage ditch?

　　The mother river is surrounded by plants and factories of the heavy and chemical industries.

　　It is beyond the carrying capacity of the Yangtze River.

　　At the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, there are even more iron and steel plants and chemical plants.

　　In Nanjing, Sinopec Jinling Branch and Sinopec Yangtze Petrochemical Company Ltd. have started moving to new locations.

　　Sinopec Jiujiang Branch, Lee & Man Paper Manufacturing Limited and Lee & Man Chemical Company Limited are located along the Yangtze River in Jiujiang.

　　Medicine and chemical factories which are the backbones of Wuxue County’s economy have been built along the river.

　　In Wuhan, most of the heavy and chemical plants including the 0.8 million tons ethylene project are located near the Yangtze River.

　　This situation also exists in Yueyang, Chongqing and Yibin.

　　In 2012, petrochemical and cement industry in the Yangtze River Economic Zone takes up of 30-40 percent in countrywide petrochemical and cement industry which usually lies along the river banks.

　　It is noticed that the key investment projects are chemical projects in development planning of some cities along the river. As chemical industry needs water transport, it is the most cost-efficient to place these industries near the river.

　　However, these energy-intensive, highly polluting projects have been developed relying on the Yangtze River. A major environmental hazard comes along with the development.

　　According to incomplete statistics, at present, there are several iron and steel bases along the Yangtze River such as Wuhan <app:ds:Wuhan> Iron <app:ds:Iron> and <app:ds:and> Steel <app:ds:Steel> (Group <app:ds:Group>) Corp <app:ds:Corp>., Baosteel Corp., Pansteel Corp., etc. Nearly ten refineries are located along the river banks as well as 400,000 chemical enterprises. In Jiangsu Province, there are 8 chemical industrial districts and over 100,000 million chemical companies near the river.

　　Data indicates that the waste water discharge amount was less than 10 billion tons in the Yangtze River Basin in 1980. Yet, discharge amount of waste water reached over 30 billion tons last year. “When you move westward, you can see that it becomes more difficult to supervise the environment protection and extensive discharge is very common in these areas.” said Xi Xiaoling, Deputy Director of Jiujiang Port Management Office. Many contamination accidents happened along the river. If leaking and pollution at the upper reaches of the Yangtze River occurs, it will influence the drinking water and industrial development of the lower reaches.

　　The River Rhine is an example of pollution. The 1390 km River Rhine runs through Switzerland, Germany, France, Netherlands and some other countries in Europe. Since 1960s, a growing number of heavy and chemical plants were built along it. The water quality became deteriorated and stinking. The Rhine becomes a “romantic gutter”.

　　In 1986, a contamination accident happened on the Rhine which was recorded in history. A fire occurred in a chemical plant in Basel, the second largest city in Switzerland and 1200 tons of chemicals flew into the Rhine and seriously polluted the water. This accident led to the death of fishes in the lower reaches of 160 kilometers. The well water couldn’t be used as drinking water. Waterworks along the Rhine in Germany, France and some other countries had been closed. Netherlands closed all the sluices connected to the Rhine. Direct economic loss of the countries along the Rhine was 60 million US dollars. Germany suffered the most as the length of the Rhine in Germany is 865 kilometers.

　　To Set up Protective Zones along the Yangtze River

　　To Strengthen Supervision and Establish Ecological Compensation Systems

　　“We should legitimately use the ‘Golden Waterway’ (the Yangtze River). The Rhine tragedy won’t happen again in the Yangtze River.” said Tang Guanjun, Director General of the Yangtze River Administration of Navigational Affairs of Ministry of Transport.

　　Xi Xiaoling suggests that we should take advantage of the multimodal transport, such as highway transportation, railway transportation and waterway as well, making ports along the Yangtze River connect to railway network and highway network and move chemical enterprises to the industrial parks and establish protective zone of the Yangtze River. This can save transportation cost for enterprises and protect the Yangtze River.

　　Xu Hongfang, Deputy Researcher of Environment Construction Office of Nanjing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-rural Development, says that the government is taking measures to protect the Yangtze River, such as moving the chemical plants along the river to industrial parks, regulating railways, establishing protective zones, and processing waste water before discharge.

　　Now Huangshi is constructing Qipanzhou Harbor District. There are industrial parks and logistics park as well as railways and highways to avoid highly polluting industries near the river.

　　Zhou Dengming, Deputy Director of Huangshi Municipal Commission of Commerce, said that history has told us that if we don’t control the pollution, in future, it will cost more to fix it.

　　After being polluted by Wuhan <app:ds:Wuhan> Iron <app:ds:Iron> and <app:ds:and> Steel <app:ds:Steel> (Group <app:ds:Group>) Corp <app:ds:Corp>., 0.3 billion RMB was invested by the government to deal with the pollution of lakes in 2007. After the Rhine was polluted, all the countries took measures to treat the Rhine. It took large amount of money and nearly 30 years to tackle with the pollution of the Rhine. “It is important to reduce pollution by high-tech means.” said Zhang Lin, Director of Wuhan New Port Administration Committee. The government should strengthen supervision and enterprises should be self-disciplined.

　　Insiders introduce that in order to treat the Rhine, the German Government has issued laws and regulations and set up monitoring points. Once the water is polluted, the government will fine, close the enterprises and arrest the persons involved. Only in this way will the enterprises invest in the environmental protection and the Rhine become clear again.

　　Experts suggest that the Central Government should establish the system of ecological compensation. In order to protect the Han River, the water source of the South-North diversion, Ningqiang, Mianxian and Danjiangkou are not allowed to develop the heavy industry and the state will make financial compensation to these areas. To protect the Yangtze River, the state and provinces and cities along the river work together, proposing a practical compensation method. Luo Jing, Dean of Urban and Environmental Science College of CCNU (Central China Normal University), proposes that we can establish transverse ecological transfer payment of benefited areas of the Yangtze River Basin.

　　The Yangtze River Connects the Mountains and Valleys

　　A Eco Gallery Is Built by People along the Yangtze River

　　Tourism is undoubtedly the best choice for the transformation of industries along the Yangtze River.

　　There are abundant tourism resources along the Yangtze River such as the Poyang Lake, Yueyang Tower, Yellow Crane Tower, Wudang Mountain and the Three Gorges.

　　With so many tourism resources, however, it is very difficult to find a tourism route which includes all these famous scenic spots.

　　Are there no tourists? No. Data from Jiujiang Tourism Bureau indicates that in 2012 pass-by cruises from Shanghai and Chongqing berthed in Jiujiang for 150 times with altogether 75,000 people. Among these tourists, 30,000 people are foreigners. Shanghai, Wuhan and Chongqing respectively opened a tourist route named “Night Tour along the Yangtze River” and this has become the name cards of these cities.

　　Is there no originality? No. Wuhu Yangtze River Water Tourism Development Company has developed the tourist route of the Yangtze River together with Shanghai Baoying Shipping Company Ltd.. The cruise will berth in Chizhou so that tourists can visit Jiuhua Mountain. There are more than 30,000 tourists travelling along this route per year.

　　However, at present, to develop a tourist route which includes all the scenic spots along the Yangtze River is still something challenging.

　　Hu Xigen, Deputy Researcher of Jiujiang Tourism Bureau said that Jiujiang introduced a cruise line to develop the tourist route named “Night Tour along the Yangtze River” in 2007. As the locals and tourists liked night scene of Jiujiang, the cruise line gained profits in the very year.

　　But in 2008, the fee of berthing increased and the cruise line could not afford it, so the company gave up this market. And due to lack of wharfs and capitals, Jiujiang Tourism Bureau hasn’t built its own cruise lines.

　　Hu said that Lushan Mountain and Xihai Hot Springs are in Jiujiang. Revenues from tourism reached more than 40 billion RMB in 2012. Yet, there is no cruise line in Jiujiang which is not consistent with the fame “Famous Tour City”.

　　Aquatic tour becomes a pity for cities along the river.

　　Yichang Tourism Bureau introduces that officials in Yichang go to Shanghai and Nanjing to promote tourism marketing as CHR trains between Wuhan and Yichang put into operation. Yichang Transportation Company has established a marketing alliance together with the Three Gorges Dam, the Three Gorges Folk Custom Tourist Site and other 4 scenic spots, combining waterway with CHR trains. In 2012, there were 26 scenic spots above 3 A level. Tourism revenue was over 20 billion RMB with 26.39 million domestic and foreign tourists. 120 travel agencies and 58 hotels gained profits. (Reported by Lei Chuang)