People in Yichang have enjoyed the "2014 Dragon Boat Cultural Festival in Qu Yuan\' Hometown" during the past days. The activities like dragon boat contest, poets’ gathering, a hometown visit paid by Qu Yuan\'s descendants back from Taiwan, and the Three Gorges Dam visit have deeply impressed the visitors.

　　Huang Chuping, the municipal party secretary, said Yichang has seized the opportunity to develop itself when the Yangtze River economic belt development is being associated with the national strategy. It has greatly facilitated its economic growth by giving impetus to a new "troika", namely, developing the regional tourism along the Yangtze River, building the Three Gorges hub port and promoting industrial upgrading.

　　First, Yichang eco-tourism industry shines brightly, sustaining the ecological growth of the Yangtze River economic belt. Yichang is an important transitional city for the tourism at the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Over the recent years, it has strongly promoted eco-tourism by bringing creative cultural elements into the natural scenery, which helps the tourists actually see and feel the story of the celebrities in legends when they visit the places of interest. The new Three Gorges tourism district in the blueprint covers near 700 km2. With the Three Gorges as its “spindle”, it attaches great importance to "gathering the key elements for building tourism industry". A number of world-class cultural tourism products have been built, such as core tourist spots, theme hotels, the cruise and yacht center, the performance and art center, the conference center, the creative culture center and the healthcare center. Currently, Yichang is one of the cities which own the most 5A-class scenic spots in China. In 2013, over 33,203,700 tourists visited Yichang and helped Yichang earn the revenue of 42 billion RMB yuan in total. During the Dragon Boat Festival this year, the number of tourists grew 40.38 percent and the tourism revenue 34.51 percent.

　　Second, the Three Gorges hub port has provided support to the cities with logistical value at the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Yichang is located at "the portal of the Three Gorges" and "the gate of Sichuan and Hubei", and after the construction of the Three Gorges Project, it has become the Logistics center in the eastern and mid-western regions of China. So far, there are more than 900 logistics enterprises in the city. Last year, the output value of the modern logistics industry reached 71.7 billion RMB yuan, increasing by 19.5% compared with last year. This year, the Three Gorges hub port will be constructed with the development of the Yangtze River as the main axis, Xiangxi River and Qingjiang River as “two wings” and 9 work areas (Mau Ping, Taipingxi, Honghuatao, Yunchi, Baiyang, Tianjiahe, Zhicheng, Qixingtai, Xiakou) and the Yangtze River Three Gorges International Cruise Centre as its focuses. About 48.3 billion RMB yuan in total will be invested in the project, of which about 24.4 billion RMB yuan will be invested in the new port district. Mayor Ma Xuming said that with the unique geographical advantages, the Three Gorges hub port will be of great importance to logistics, industrial output, the Three Gorges tourism and sea transportation of the western part of the Yangtze River region.

　　Third, major industries have been allocated along the Yangtze River, promoting the industrial restructuring and upgrading. On the one hand, new technology, new equipment and other means have been used to transform and elevate traditional industries such as the chemical, electricity, building materials, textiles, food and beverage industries; on the other hand, the modern industrial agglomerate areas with prominent features have been allocated along the Yangtze River. Efforts have been made to actively guide the project, funds and industries to move into the industrial parks. Enterprises with an annual output value over ten billion RMB yuan including Yihua Group, Xingfa Group, CSG, Guangzhou Automobile Group, ZTE have settled down in the parks. In addition, two unique industries-the fine chemicals and food & bio-medicine industry, whose annual output value are over one hundred billion RMB yuan, have already taken shape. Currently there are 177 high-tech enterprises in Yichang, among which the biological medicine, advanced materials and electronic information industry made Yichang the pilot city of the national strategic emerging industry and also the only model city of the advanced material industry development. (Reporter: Wei Jinsong; correspondents: Hu Zhibin, Dan Zhengyan)

　　(From the "Economic Daily" headline on the first page, June 8)