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YichangYichang, situated about 250km west of Wuhan, is the gateway to the Three Gorges Dam area. It is an important trading and distribution centre, and for centuries its port has connected western Hubei province with eastern Sichuan. Today, with a spectacular riverfront, it looks and feels like a large, modern city.
Mountains and forest dominate the landscape to the west of the city, while to the east lies a vast, fertile plain. The construction of the nearby Gezhouba Dam, which started operations in 1981, turned Yichang from a small city into a large one. Thousands of workers from this project and the even bigger Three Gorges Dam have settled in the city and have contributed to its rising prosperity. Today, Yichang’s administrative area has a population of 4m, of whom 1.66m live in the city proper. Living standards are similar to those of Wuhan.
In recent years, Yichang has supplanted Jingzhou as the second most important economic centre in Hubei after the provincial capital Wuhan. Its major industry is power generation: in addition to the Gezhouba and Three Gorges projects, the area contains more than 450 small and medium-sized power stations. Other industries include pharmaceuticals, chemicals, foodstuffs and new construction materials. The area is one of Hubei’s most important lumber producers, while its tea and oranges are well known nationally.
The major sources of overseas investment are Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and countries in Southeast Asia. Big-name companies with a presence in the city include InBev of Belgium, L’Oréal of France, National Power of the UK, Chia Tai of Thailand, Shun Tak of Hong Kong and Mitsui of Japan.
In 1996, public access was granted to the tourist area at the Three Gorges Dam, giving a strong boost to the local tourism sector. The top of the dam, near Yichang city, is open from July to September, when the Yangtze is in spate. Tourism accounts for about 9 per cent of the city’s GDP.
Yangtze Electric Power Co is China’s top listed power producer. It was created in 2002 as the listing vehicle for the Three Gorges Co, the state-owned enterprise behind the massive hydropower project.
The Hong Kong-based Shun Tak Holdings has a joint venture with Yichang Port Group that operates the Zigui passenger terminal on the Yangtze in Yichang. The terminal is capable of handling 5m passengers a year.
Chinese glass-maker CSG Holding has invested in a Rmb6bn production base for high-purity polysilicon, the largest of its kind in China. Situated in Yichang Development Zone, the plant takes advantage of the wide local availability of high-purity polysilicon materials and solar power battery components.
In 2006, Beijing-based Shougang Group signed an agreement with Yichang city to exploit an iron mine rich in phosphorous. Shougang will invest more than Rmb8bn in the project, which upon completion will have an annual capacity of 8m tons of iron ore concentrate powder.
Yichang Municipal Pacific Chemicals is a major fertiliser producer and the largest exporter in Yichang. It has an output of some 400,000 tons of fertiliser a year and benefits from being located in the largest rock phosphate region in Asia, with reserves in excess of 7bn tonnes. Mitsui & Co of Japan has a joint venture in Yichang with Shen Nong Jia Mine Co, which is engaged in the processing of calcium phosphate products.
Covering an initial area of 6.1 sq km, Yichang ETDZ is located in the east of the city, 2.5km from the port and 20km from the airport. Enterprises in the zone are engaged mainly in the pharmaceuticals, new materials, chemicals and textiles industries.
National Highway 318 (running from Shanghai to Youyiqiao in Tibet) passes through Yichang, and an expressway connects to Wuhan. The Shanghai-Chengdu and Hangzhou-Lanzhou expressways also pass through the city. The Three Gorges Expressway, connecting Yichang with Wanzhou in Chongqing, is scheduled to open in 2010.
Yichang is positioning itself as a gateway to Sichuan province. Work has been completed on a major rail line and highway leading to Zigong in Sichuan. The Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu express railway line, which will pass through Yichang, is currently being built; when it is completed in 2012, the line will reduce the travel time between the two cities to two hours.
Yichang Sanxia Airport operates services to 24 Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Yichang port is situated at the dividing line between the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze. Like other ports on the middle reaches of the river, annual tidal drops are quite pronounced – 17-18 metres in Yichang’s case.
The state-owned Yichang Port Group operates six terminals handling breakbulk cargo, containers and passengers. The major cargo terminals are the Central Terminal on the north bank of the river, Zhicheng Terminal on the south bank in the southeast of the city, and Linjiangping Terminal, also in the southeast of the city but on the north bank.
In 2007, the city reported a throughput of 32.34m tons and 31,800 teu, increases of 80 per cent and 53 per cent respectively compared with the same period of the previous year.
The world’s largest coal mixing centre is being built in Zhicheng Terminal, in a project involving a Hong Kong partner, Petrocom Energy. It will use a coal blending facility similar to one used in Rotterdam port. Ultimately, it will be able to handle 30m tons of coal each year.
Land transport connections are reasonable. The port is located 10km from the Wuhan-Yichang Expressway and the dedicated railway line at Zhicheng Terminal links it with the national railway system.
The priority for future investment is the construction of Yunchi Deepwater Quay, which will contain a total of 12 berths. A bonded zone and a logistics centre are planned adjacent to the terminal, along with a dedicated railway line linking it with national lines.
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