By the Policy Research Office of Yichang Municipal Committee of CPC
Yichang, as the provincial sub-central city, has gained great support for its development from the Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government. To build Yichang into a modern megacity is not only the overall strategic vision of Yichang’s development, but also an important part of Hubei Province’s “one pivot, multilevel” strategic system. In June, 2011, the Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government issued The Strategic Decision of Implementing of “One Major-central City and Two Sub-central Cities” in All Aspects and Accelerating the Realization of great-leap-forward Development of Yichang City, which shows clearly that they will support Yichang in building it into a modern megacity. In the 10th Congress of Party Representatives of Hubei Province that was held in June, 2012, the plan of building Yichang into a modern megacity was uplifted as a provincial strategy. This article will now give a brief introduction on the decision-making basis, decision-making process, strategic meaning and the implementation of building Yichang into a modern megacity.
I.The decision-making of building Yichang into a modern megacity
The concept of megacity was first proposed by a Scottish city planner Geddes in 1915. Later, European and American scholars such as Milton Friedman put forward several standards to measure if a city is a megacity or not. Nowadays, the United Nations judge the city size by the number of its residents. A population of 20,000 people is the lower limit of being identified as a city, 100,000 of being identified as a metropolitan and 1 million of being identified as a megacity. China, with its comparatively larger population, has a higher standard. According to the adopted standard, a city with a population between 500,000 to 1,000,000 is a metropolitan, between 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 a megacity, over 2 million a super-megacity. At present, international studies on urbanology hold that a modern megacity should have the following features: having advanced notions on cities; possessing strong economic strength; being the regional center; having a large population and having an open spatial structure.
Located in the area connecting the upper and middle reaches of Yangtze River, Yichang is the home to the famous Three Gorges Project and the important hinge of the golden waterway of the Yangtze River. It holds an important position among the city clusters in the middle reaches of Yangtze River as well. The unique geographical position and the city status are prerequisites for Yichang to become a megacity. In recent years, with the accelerating speed of urbanization, Yichang has entered into its significant historical period - the third great-leap-forward development period.
Based on the current development throughout the country, it is possible to build Yichang into a megacity.
Ever since the reform and opening up, there has been a steady advance in the urbanization of China and the urbanization rate of resident population has reached 53.7%. This rate, however, is much lower than that of the developed countries and even lower than the global average. Furthermore, the urbanization level in general lags far behind the industrialization level. The low urbanization level, being the main reason for the uncoordinated development of regional economy, limits the expansion of domestic demand and the upgrade of industrial structure. Urbanization is a major and urgent task in the process of our modernization construction. It is also a significant drive for the expansion of domestic demand. The National Planning of New Pattern Urbanization (2014-2020) proposed that in the year 2020, the urbanization rate of resident population should reach 60%. In the coming years, priority will be given to the “300 million people”, that is promoting the settlement of 100 million people in urban areas, rebuilding the shanty houses and villages in the city where live 100 million people and helping 100 million people resettle in cities or towns near them. Premier Li Keqiang said at the NPC & CPPCC (the National People\'s Congress and the Chinese Political Consultative Conference) this year that the central government will provide more support for the new pattern urbanization in central and western areas. As a result, there will be significant strategic opportunities to build Yichang into a modern megacity.
Based on the overall situation of regional development, it is inevitable to build Yichang into a megacity.
Being an important economic axis, the Yangtze River basin is an area where people, cities and towns and industries congregate. In the vast area of the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, there are only two megacities: Wuhan and Chongqing. And there are no more megacities in the distance of more than 1000 kilometers between Wuhan and Chongqing. Yichang holds an important position in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. After the overall improvement of its transportation network, it will be a transportation hub between Wuhan and Chongqing, which then will connect the whole transportation system along Yangtze River. Yichang, with all its favorable conditions, will be a megacity in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River that connects Wuhan and Chongqing and links the eastern and western part of China. At present, the middle and western part of China is attracting more and more people to work there and there is a notable increase in the number of migrant workers. Last year, the number of migrant workers in the eastern part of China has decreased by 0.2% as compared with the previous year, and the number has increased by 9.4% and 3.3% in the middle and western part of China respectively.
From the development pattern of Huibei Province, it is necessary to build Yichang into a modern megacity.
At present, as for the population scale and structure of urban systems in Hubei Province, the percentage of population is larger in primate cities and small towns and is smaller in second and third-tier cities; as for the population distribution in in Hubei Province, the population is dense in the eastern cities and sparse in the western cities. Wuhan is the largest and most-developed city in Hubei Province, and its regional economy is very concentrated, and factors such as information, talents, science and technology, capital, are highly clustered. There is a large gap between the development pattern in Wuhan City and the goal of multi-level support and coordinated development pursued by the multi-level strategic system in Hubei Province. In 2013, the gross domestic product (GDP) in Wuhan City was more than 900 billion RMB, accounting for over one-third of the entire provincial proportion. However, the GDP of two sub-center cities, Yichang City and Xiangyang City, totaled 560 billion RMB. In addition, the population in Wuhan City was more than 10 million, while the population in the central urban areas of Yichang City and Xiangyang City was merely no less than 2.8 million. According to the general law of regional economics, we can find that it is difficult to promote the coordinated development around the whole province if attention is only given to the development of one city. Hubei Province must attach great importance to build several economic centers if it wants to become a strategic pivot of the central region. Therefore, only by having great economic power and becoming a megacity can Yichang become a provincial sub-central city, a regional central city in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, with the function and strength to drive the regional economic development.
From the trend of urban development, it is feasible to build Yichang into a modern megacity.
Since the founding of New China, Yichang has experienced two historical leaps of development, and now it is the third leap-forward development. In the earliest days of China’s founding, the urban population of Yichang was merely 70,000. However, after seizing two opportunities of building the Gezhouba Water Control Project and the Three Gorges Project, Yichang has successfully realized two historical leaps of development from a small city to a medium-sized city and finally to a big city. In 2013, there were 1,350,000 residents who lived in Yichang central urban area which covers an area of 136 square kilometers, with its urbanization rate reaching 56%. The rapid growth of urban population in Yichang mainly results from attracting immigrants from other places. Along with the construction of a modern megacity, Yichang has gradually shown its attraction to people outside. According to the data from Hubei Provincial Bureau of Statistics, apart from Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei Province, Yichang is the only city with the resident population more than its registered population, which is rare in the Midwest. In addition, according to the Housing Management Bureau of Yichang, in 2012, 14684 sets of commercial residential buildings were sold out in the downtown area of Yichang, of which 33% were bought by people outside Yichang; while in 2013, 22212 sets of commercial residential buildings were sold out, of which 38% were bought by people outside Yichang. In order to become more attractive to people outside it, Yichang government plans to realize the human-oriented urbanization, focusing on making Yichang a city suitable for living, traveling, and learning. According to the general experience of urban development, a city will begin to enter a period of urbanization and rapid expansion when its urbanization level has reached 30%. In the last five years, the central downtown Yichang has been extended by 6 square kilometers annually, and its resident population has risen nearly 100 thousand, and this trend is speeding up yearly. Through comprehensive analysis and judgment, we can find that Yichang has entered into a period of urbanization and rapid expansion, which is characterized by a rapid expansion of city scale, aggregation of population, promotion of functions as well as industrial transformation. Now, it is striding forward to be a modern megacity.
II. The decision-making process of building Yichang into a modern megacity
The strategic decision of building Yichang into a modern megacity has experienced four closely linked periods.
The first period is the gestation period for the decision making. The strategic decision of building Yichang into a modern megacity originated from sufficient preparations, and it has gained the concern and encouragement from China\'s top leaders. Several great men from different generations have paid their attention to Yichang, from Sun Yat-sen’s nation-building strategy by using sluice gate to retain water to Mao Zedong’s dream of achieving a powerful China by building three Gorges dam. In addition, other Chinese party and state leaders came to Yichang several times to inspect and gave guidance and pinned high hopes on the development of Yichang. In the 1980s, at the beginning of the Three Gorges Project’s construction, Li Peng encouraged that Yichang should be built as an Oriental Geneva. In 2001, Zhu Rongji inspected Yichang and pointed out that Yichang would be and must be a world-class city in the future. In March 2012, while investigating the construction of Yichang, Li Yuanchao requested that Yichang should be built into a modern megacity, covering 300 square kilometers, with 3 million people.
The second period is the formation stage of the decision-making. In April 2011, a meeting in Yichang on construction of the pattern of “Wuhan as the center and Yichang and Xiangyang as two sub-central cities” was held by Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Hubei Provincial Government, and the goal of building Yichang into a modern megacity was officially proposed. In June 2011, in the document of The Implementation of One Provincial Center of Wuhan and Two Provincial Sub-centers of Xiangyang and Yichang Development Strategy and Decision to Accelerate the Leap-forward Development of Yichang City issued by Hubei Provincial Government, it was clearly stated that Yichang will be built into a big city with 2 million permanent population in the urban framework of 200 square kilometers by 2015. And the preliminary idea of building Yichang into a modern megacity was basically formed in the Yichang Officials Meeting in November 2011.
The third period is the establishment of the decision-making. There are two events that mark the official establishment of the idea of building Yichang into a modern megacity. The first one is the 5th Party Congress of Yichang City in December 2011. This meeting clearly stated the overall strategy concept of "three major targets" and "four leap-forward development goals". The goal of building Yichang into a modern megacity was set. The second is the 10th Party Congress of Hubei Province and it put forward that Yichang should be transformed into a modern megacity as a provincial sub-central/ regional central city in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River which possesses abundant hydraulic power and tourism resources.
The last stage is the maturity of the decision-making. At the beginning of 2012, 22 major research subjects were established and guided by the leaders of Yichang Municipal Party Committee. In August 2012, Li Hongzhong, the provincial party secretary, and Wang Guosheng, Governor of Hubei Province, hosted the Yichang Urban Master Planning Conference and stated that Yichang should quicken its pace of building itself into a modern megacity as a provincial sub-central/ regional central city in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River which possesses abundant hydraulic power and tourism resources. In December 2012, the Third Plenary Session of the Fifth Municipal Party Committee was held to state the objective positioning system, the fundamental connotation, the development concept and the way of promotion. At the beginning of 2013, 21 major subjects were set and the research were led by Huang Chuping, the standing member of Provincial Party Committee and Party Secretary of Yichang Committee, and Ma Xuming, the mayor and deputy secretary of municipal party committee ect.. In April 2013, the Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Government held a meeting and approved the master planning and comprehensive design of urban new district construction, which is to build Yichang into a “big, strong, excellent and beautiful” modern megacity. Master Planning of Yichang Urban Construction (2011-2030) and Master Planning of New District Construction had been approved in March and July, 2013, respectively, while the overall framework and the top-level design of building Yichang into a modern megacity was officially formed. In December 2013, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Fifth Municipal Party Committee was held to improve and upgrade the system of modern megacity construction.
The objective positioning system of building Yichang into a modern megacity consists of overall positioning, economic power evaluation, the orientation of urban functions and characteristics positioning.
It was proposed that the fundamental connotation of a modern megacity is “large, strong, excellent and beautiful”, that is, we should strive to build a megacity in area and population, to form powerful urban function, to make Yichang a business hotspot and pleasant city and to establish an image of being an attractive city. The development concept of "people-oriented, post-modern, integration of industry and city, construction and sharing” and development pattern of "open and leading, innovation-driven, market-oriented, talent leading, integration of urban and rural areas" were established.
On the way of promoting the idea, the specific idea of “1-4-5-6-7” and the general reform scheme of “1 + 10”reform work pattern were gradually formed. As for the specific work idea of “1-4-5-6-7”, 1 stands for the goal of constructing a big, strong, excellent and beautiful modernized mega-city; 4 means building four platforms including Yichang New District, Yichang High-tech District, Three Gorgers Pivotal Port District and Three Gorgers Travelling District; 5 refers to the five livelihood projects which will double the income of the residents, encouraging people to start their business, innovating in social management, arranging the city, greening and beautifying the city, and establishing National Best Trustworthy City for Food Safety; 6 involves cultivating the six industries with the value of hundreds of billions of RMB, which are in the fields of fine chemicals, food and biological medicine, advanced equipment manufacturing, new materials, culture-oriented travel, modern logistics; 7 stands for the seven institutional and mechanism innovations which include promoting the administration of the city planning and construction, investing and financing, new-type urbanization, modern industrial system, the pilot region of the strategy of Talented Persons Can Strengthen the City, developing and utilizing the riverbank of Yangtze River, and developing the culture-oriented travel. In term of the general reform scheme of “1 + 10”, it is the top-level design and general planning on major issues. 1 refers to issuing the Opinions on Implementing the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee，deepening the reforms in an all-round way, and changing the way of developing. 10 stands for revolving around ten important issues to innovate the institution and mechanism, and fulfilling the breakthrough, including promoting human-centered new-type urbanization, accelerating the construction of National Best Trustworthy City for Food Safety, fully enhancing the ecological construction to build the livable city, transforming the functions of the government and improving the development environment, making the city suitable for study, building an intelligent city, reconstructing the old city to build the livable city, making breakthrough in developing modern service industry, making breakthrough in building strategic new industries , accelerating the agricultural modernization and so on.
III. The strategic connotation of building Yichang into a megacity
The core connotation of building Yichang into a megacity is to build a “big, strong, excellent and beautiful” modern city.
The city is supposed to cover a large area, because a big area is the foundation of a modern megacity. The planned area of Yichang is like following one goal, that is, by the end of the 12th Five-year Plan, the urban district of Yichang reaches an area of 200 square kilometers with 2,000,000 permanent residents; by the year of 2030, it will cover an area of 300 square kilometers with 3,000,000 permanent residents; and an area of 500 square kilometers with 5,000,000 permanent residents in future. At present, in the process of city expansion, great efforts have been made in the reconstruction of the down town as well as in building the city system. The main task of the reconstruction of central city lies in the construction of four new districts. After more than one year’s hard work, now the framework of the new districts has been completed, of which the initial area has begun to take shape. Within three years, infrastructures will cover the whole area of 100 square kilometers where a core area of 20 square kilometers will be fully completed. And within five years, the framework of the new districts, which covers an area of 220 square kilometers, will be generally formed.
The urban functions, which are key indexes in measuring the development of a city, should be strong. Yichang plans to improve its urban functions by concentrating on the promotion of industrial aggregation, comprehensive service and the leading role of the city. Up to now, there are two industries with an output value of hundreds of billions in Yichang, i.e. industry of fine chemicals and that of foods and biological medicines. For the coming few years, there will be one more industry with that much output value each year. As to comprehensive service, the key is to balance the scale with quality, to improve the city’s comprehensive service function in an overall way; and finally to establish a system of comprehensive service which suits a modern megacity. When it comes to the leading role of the city, it is of great significance to strengthen the infrastructures in navigation, highway transportation, railway transportation and air transportation. To develop Yichang, which locates in the joint of central and west of China into an important transport hub, it is vital to establish a modern traffic system with fine functions, feasible layout, scientific management and efficient operation. When the establishment of this system is completed, Yichang will be highly connected to Sichuan Province and Wuhan City. By then, the cooperation between Yichang and other cities in Three Gorges region will be strengthened and regional interaction, communication and development will be largely realized.
For the environment reflects the development of a city, the city environment should be excellent. An excellent city environment should include the following aspects: a top-ranking environment in aspects of investment, living, service, culture and policy. For that, Yichang keeps on building the city’s soft environment to improve its soft power in development. Since last year, Yichang has achieved a lot in establishing itself as one of the best cities in food safety in the whole country. It’s the first in Hubei Province that has set up an electronic tracing system in food safety. A supervision model is basically formed, under which the food on table can be traced back to the field where it grows through the chain of food supply. Meanwhile, social governance in both urban area and rural area has also made a big step forward. New systems for urban social governance and rural social governance are under establishment. What’s more, Yichang won the Best Comprehensive Administration Prize in China, the Chang’an Prize (which means eternal stability in Chinese) for being one of the safest cities in the country. Yichang was also selected as the most appealing destination for investment in China in 2013.
The city should be beautiful. A favorable city image is the valuable resource and the greatest intangible asset to a city’s development. Now it is on the road to build Yichang as one of the most beautiful cities with attractive sceneries, beautiful rural areas and extraordinary urban space. Since last year, much effort has been put in city planning, function promoting and landscaping in the older sections of the city. Several cultural festivals were held in Yichang with great success, including the Ninth China International Folk Art Festival, the Forth China Three Gorges International Tourism Festival and the Third Yichang China Yangtze River Piano Music Festival. And it was awarded as the Model City in China. Those role models have also added brilliance to the city’s popularity.
While striding forward to build Yichang into a modern megacity, much attention has been paid to integrate industrial development with city construction. Equal importance has been attached to industrial projects as well as city construction programs. In the process of city expansion, Yichang’s economic power has been strengthened, so did its social construction. In 2013,the gross output value of Yichang reached 281.8 billion RMB, the local budget revenue 20.63 billion RMB, the industrial added value 140.58 billion RMB, the fixed-asset investment 210.7 billion RMB and the total retail sales of consumer goods 86 billion RMB, which together made Yichang the second most powerful city among cities of the same rank in central region of China, the fourth among cities of the same rank along the Yangtze River, the second in Hubei Province and the 63rd in the list of top 100 cities in the country. The city also won a series of honor. It is the first city that is awarded as the Model City in China, National Sanitary City and National Model City for Environmental Protection in Hubei Province. It is also the National Designated Forest City. What’s more, Yichang won the Best Comprehensive Administration Prize in China, the Chang’an Prize for being one of the safest cities in China. With the constant improvement of its comprehensive strength, influence and competitiveness, Yichang is advancing quickly on its path to be a “big, strong, excellent and beautiful” modern megacity.