A Brief Introduction to Yichang—a comfortable city, a prosperous place
Yichang is located at the joint of the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. It covers an area of 21,000 km², with a population of 4.15million, and more than 20 ethnic groups live harmoniously here for many years, including Han, Hui, Tujia, and Manchu etc, among them Han is the biggest group.
Yichang is the sub-center city of Hubei province, the regional center city in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River and the world famous Hydropower Tourist City. The world famous Three Gorges Project and the Gezhouba Water Control project are all located here.
Yichang is a comfortable and livable city just as its name literally means. It boasts of a long civilized history of more than 2700 years and it was regarded as the cradle of the ancient Bachu culture, and the birthplace of Tujia minority people. Yichang is the hometown of Madame Leitsu, the silk inventor as well as the wife of China’s ancestral Emperor Huangdi; Chuyuan, a famous patriotic poet and celebrity of world history and culture; Wang Zhaojun, one of the four most beautiful ladies in ancient China. Yichang has a terrain of undulating mountains, countless hills as well as meandering rivers and streams. Therefore, its forest coverage rate exceeds 65.7%. With fresh air, agreeable climate, and beautiful environment, the diligent and kindhearted local people enjoy their happy lives here.
Yichang is the core city of ecological cultural tourism circle of western Hubei and the international destination city of Yangtze River three gorges tour. The towering mountains, magnificent gorges, fascinating sceneries, splendid cultures and modern projects attracted more than 20 million tourists annually, including more than 500 thousand tourists from abroad.
Yichang is an open and inclusive international city. Up to now, it has international sister cities and friendly cooperative cities in more than 10 countries, and its trade relationship extend to more than 100 countries as well. More than 100 foreign presidents, prime ministers, parliament speakers and Party leaders visited Yichang in the past thirty years.
Yichang is a well-known prosperous place. It is the geographical center of China. With a superior geographical position and convenient transport infrastructures, it is becoming the regional transportation hub in central China. With modern airport, harbor, railway station and express ways, you can quickly and easily go to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi’an and other major cities of China by various means.
There are four gigantic hydropower stations here including the Three Gorges Project, and the Gezhouba Hydropower Station, with a total installation capacity of 29 million kw and the annual electricity output is more than 130 billion kwh. It is regarded as the Power Heart of China. What’s more, Yichang has been selected as one of the most appropriate cities for establishing factories and one of the best cities for investors. With a state-level high-tech industrial park and 12 province-level development zones, Yichang has a solid industrial foundation and a broad prospect for development. A number of well-known domestic and foreign enterprises have been settled in Yichang including L’Oreal, and Mitsui and so on. They all grow very fast in such an excellent investing environment. Yichang is home to the biggest yeast base of Asia, the famous fine chemical production base, the piano base, anesthetics base and top-brand liquor base, it is also a production area of high-quality oranges and teas. Yichang is expanding and strengthening the four pillar industries such as electric power, chemical industry, food and pharmaceuticals, and equipment manufacture. It is also seeking breakthroughs in fields of strategic emerging industries such as biology, new energy, magnetic electronics, nano materials, environmental technology, and modern service industries such as cultural tourism, business and logistics. In 2013, Yichang’s GDP exceeded 4.3 million USDs, and ranked second in terms of comprehensive strength among similar cities of central China.
In recent years, with vigorous development in the economy and society, the city image of Yichang raised rapidly. It has been honored as the National Civilized City, the National Health City, the National Model City for Environmental Protection, the National Forest City, the National Garden City and the Chinese Outstanding Tourist City.
