On December 21st , the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport jointly issued the National Logistics Hub Layout and Construction Plan, which declares that 30 cities including Wuhan and Yichang were shortlisted as the port-type national logistics hub cities.

　　The Plan suggests that 30 national logistic hubs, which boast a better ability of radiation, a higher level of modern operation and a closer interconnection, will form a basic framework of the national Logistic network by 2020, including 6 types of national logistic hubs: land ports, ports, airports, production service hubs, trade service hubs and land frontier ports, among which Yichang belongs to the second type.

　　Yichang was shortlisted as a national logistics hub city benefiting from its unique location with advantages of east-west linkage, north-south intersection and the location of the Three Gorges Project. In the past years, implementation of the strategy of developing the Yangtze River Economic Zone development has greatly promoted the construction of the Three Gorges comprehensive transport system, focusing on “the passage” and “the river”, to facilitate the development of the grand logistic industry through creating the general traffic pattern of Yichang.

　　The Three Gorges Multi-modal Demonstration Project of the Project has been included in the third National Demonstration Projects and it integrates the Yangtze and land transportation to form a multi-modal network, which improves the efficient use of the Yangtze River waterway. Besides, the dams along the Yangtze River in Yichang section with the highways and railways have been integrated into the Three Gorges Dam Transshipment System as an important part of the comprehensive traffic and transportation system of the Three Gorges area.

　　In 2017, the first railway freight train to the Europe and the first freight train of integrated transport of international railway and waterway to Malaysia departed from Yichang, as suggested the formation of multi-modal traffic and transportation pattern of Three Gorges Hub. (By reporter Gaowei, Wangying, correspondent Juwang)