(Reporter: Lei Pengcheng; Correspondent: Zhao Zilong) On April 18th, the commencement ceremonyof Three Gorges Cruise Center (TGCC) of Yangtze River & other major projects in April 2018 of Yichang City is held in Pinghu Bay. The launching of TGCC project with a total investment of 6 billion yuan marks a new prelude of Yichang’s second quarter investment promotion and project construction. The commencement of the projects is announced by Zhou Ji, Party committee secretary of Yichang.

　　Zhang Jiasheng, deputy secretary of Yichang’s Party Committee and the mayor, delivers a speech at the ceremony, which is attended also by other city leaders including Song Wenbao, Liu Xuefu, Yuan Weidong, Liu Jianxin and Zhou Zhengying along with Liu Xiaohua, director of the Administrative Committee of Three Gorges New Tourism Area, and Jiang Zhengxiong, secretary general of the municipal government.

　　On behalf of Yichang’s Party Committee and the Government, Zhang Jiasheng expresses his warm congratulations to the commencement of TGCC project and shows his sincere gratitude to the provincial departments, the Three Gorges Group and the Gezhouba Group that have long supported Yichang's development. He says that the construction of the project marks the beginning of a new prelude to investment attraction and project construction in the second quarter of the city and will surely play an important demonstrative and guiding role in the breakthrough development of the local modern service industry, in building a world famous city of hydro-power tourism and an ecological Yangtze River, and in advancing the green development of the city. All thelocalities and departmentsof the city should treat the front-line of the project construction as a training ground for “turning working styles and addressing implementation”and be actively supportive and fully cooperative, performing their duties with due diligence to ensure and coordinate the construction. He hopes that project owners and construction units can adhere to high standards, high quality, and high efficiency, making meticulous organization and scientific construction, promoting the construction in a safe and orderly manner to ensure that the project can be completed and work as soon as possible.

　　Liu Xiaohua has introduced those related conditions of the project. He says that the Cruise Center is positioned as the home port base for the Great Three Gorges region, with cruise ship management services and entertainment as the core in its development, and efforts are being made to build a new generation of composite cruise home port leisure syntheses to promote transformation and upgrading of Yangtze River Tourism in Hubei Province. We will take the starting and construction of this project as an opportunity to integrally promote the relocation and investment promotion of the projects within the Pinghu Peninsula. And we will make great efforts to promote the building with high standards, striving to build the beautiful Pinghu Bay into the Victoria Bay of Yichang as soon as possible, so that the Pinghu Peninsula and the Cruise Center project can be a core engine in turning Yichang tourism into a 100-billion industry receiving 100 million tourists annually.

　　It is learned that the Cruise Center Project, located in Pinghu Peninsula, lies at the convergence of the Yangtze River and the Huangbai River, with a planning land of 645 acres and a construction area of approximately 680,000 square meters. It has a designed annual passenger handling capacity of approximately 2 million person-times and an estimated investment of 6 billion yuan. The technical scheme and planningof the project will be conducted by the Australian Peddle Thorp & Walker (PTW) Company led by Tony Rossi, the world’s top waterfront architectural design master and one of the designers of the Water Cube in the National Swimming Center.

　　It is informed that since the beginning of this year, the municipal Party Committee and the municipal government have insisted on holding a centralized commencement activity for major projects every month. From January to March, successively such major projects have been promoted as passenger car project of Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd., the relocation and transformation of Hubei Sanning, and the innovative drugs and generic drugs of Dongyangguang Company, making an upsurge of investment promotion and project construction. Until the early April, the city has launched a total of 112 projects, with a total investment of 88.9 billion yuan and an annual planned investment of 22.1 billion yuan.