On February 16th, Zhijiang Municipal Government signed an agreement with Yichang Transportation Investment Co., Ltd of Yichang Urban Construction Investment Holding Group. The agreement says that the latter is going to invest 12.2 billion yuan to build Qixingtai into a new port town and to set up a system for distribution and transportation, opening a new logistics channel to connect Jingmen, Dangyang, Zhijiang with Yangtze River Delta region, so that Yichang will become the eastern logistics distribution center and transit center. That means the construction of Three Gorges hub port is accelerating in Yichang.

　　Since the Three Gorges ship lock opened for navigation in 2003, its freight amount has been continuously increasing and broke through 100 million tons in 2011, reaching the maximum designed capacity 19 years earlier than expected. However, the maximum waiting time of ships to go through the lock reaches more than 240 hours, and its freight is overstocked at present.

　　The Three Gorges hub port is the general term for the cluster of ports in Yichang. It is designed according to the rule of “One axis, two wings, nine parts and one center” for the final functions of transit port in damn crossing, industrial output port, western harbor and Three Gorges Tourism Port. When accomplished, its annual capacity will reach 100 million tons and it will become a great transportation port along Yangtze River. (Correspondents: Huang Hong, Wu Yan)