General Information of Hubei Province

Geographical location

Hubei is located at the central part of the People’s Republic of China, with short title of “e”. Its territory spans eat longitude from 108°21′42″ to 116°07′50″, and north latitude from 29°01′53″ to 33°6′47″. It is adjacent to An’hui in the east, connected to Jiangxi and Hunan in the south, linked with Chongqing in the west, bordered on Shaanxi in the northwest and neighbored with Henan in the north. It is 740km long from east to west, and it is 470km wide from south to north. Gross area of land in the province is 185, 900m², accounting for 1.94 percent of gross area of the land of the whole country.

The province is surrounded on three sides (east, west and north) by mountains. Its low and flat middle part is a piece of incomplete basin slightly open towards south. Of the gross area, there are 56% mountains, 24% hills and 20% lowland lake area.

As to mountains, they are divided into four parts in the province. Northwestern mountains are area extending to the east by Qinling and east section of Daba Mountain. Area extending to the east by Qinling is called Wudang mountain chain, going from northwest to southeast, with lots of mountains. Altitude of ridge of mountains is generally above 1000m, and the highest is Tianzhu Peak of Wudang Mountain with altitude of 1621m. East section of Daba Mountain consists of Shennongjia, Jingshan Mountain and Wushan Mountain, with thick forests and deep river valleys. Peak of Shennongjia is Shennongding with altitude of 3105m, always known as “The First Peak in Central China”. Jingshan Mountain goes from northwest to southeast. Its topography tends to be a highland with altitude of 250 to 500m towards south. Geology of Wushan Mountain is complicated. Function of channel erosion there is strong, and generally the relative altitude is between 700 to 1500m, locally over 200m. Changjiang River crosses over it from west to east, forming splendid Three Gorges with rich water resources. Southwestern mountains are area extending to the northeast by Yungui Upland consisting of Dalou Mountain and Wuling Mountain, going from northeast to southwest, with general altitude of 700 to 1000m, and the highest part is Lion Nao with altitude of 2152m. Northeastern mountains are Tongbo Mountain and Dabie mountain chain stretching the border of Henan, Hubei and An’hui, going from northwest to southeast. Dominant peak of Tongbo Mountain is Taibaiding with altitude of 1140m. Dominant peak of Dabie Mountain is Tiantangzhai with altitude of 1729m. Southeastern mountains are Mufu mountain chains winding the border of Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi, slightly going from southwest to northeast. The dominant peak is Laoyajian with altitude of 1656m.

As to hills, they are scattered in two areas, one is the middle hill and the other is the northeastern hill. The middle hill includes Jianghan hill between Jingshan Mountain and Dabie Mountain and hill of water area between Dahong Mountain and Tongbo Mountain. The northeastern hill is mainly low hill, small hypsographic features, open clough, thick soil layer, suitable for farming and forest.

As to flatlands, main flatlands in the province are Jianghan Plain and Yanjiang Plain at the east of Hubei. Jianghan Plain is formed by alluviation of Changjiang River and its branch Hanjiang, which is a typical lacustrine plain, with area of over 40, 000m². The whole topography slopes from northwest towards southeast slightly, with flat ground, densely covered with lakes, interweaved river network. The altitude of most ground is 20 to 100m. Yanjiang Plain at the east of Hubei is also a plain alluviated by rivers and lakes, mainly distributed along Changjiang River from Jiayu county to Huangmei county, being a part of the plain of the middle reach of Changjiang River. In this area, fan delta is narrow, lakes and rivers interweave between interfluve with remainder mountain and low hill, so the area of this Plain is contracted and not as wide as Jianghan Plain.

Administrative division

There are 12 province-controlled cities, 1 autonomous prefecture and 1 forest zone in Hubei Province, which include Wuhan city, Huangshi city, Shiyan city, Jingzhou city, Yichang city, Xiangfan city, Ezhou city, Jingmen city, Xiaogan city, Huanggang city, Xianning city, Suizhou city, Enshi Tujiazu autonomous prefecture and Shennongjia forest zone. It establishes 24 county-level cities and 41 counties, of which Xiantao city, Tianmen city and Qianjiang city are province-controlled county-level cities.

Natural resources

Hydroenergy resources in Hubei are very abundant. In its territory, there are over 1190 rivers with total length of 35,000km. Installed capacity of hydroenergy developable is 33, 570, 000 kilowatt, ranking the fourth throughout the country. Hydraulic engineering established currently includes the largest key water-control project in the world—Three Gorges hydrojunction with installed gross capacity of 18, 200, 000 kilowatt. In addition, there are Gezhou Dam, Danjiang River, Qingjiang River, Bailian River and Fushui Reservoir and so on. The world-famous midline project of south-north water transfer taking Hubei as the water source is being established approved by the government recently.

The mineral resources in Hubei are very rich. There are 136 kinds of minerals discovered in Hubei (excluding inferior minerals), accounting for 81 percent of total kinds of minerals discovered in China; Resource extent of 87 minerals has been detected, accounting for 56 percent of minerals with detected resource extent; 49 minerals are discovered, but their resource extent isn’t detected. 80 minerals are listed in Hubei Minerals Reserve List (excluding petroleum, natural gas, geothermal heat, uranium, thorium, underground water, mineral water, etc). 956 mine fields and 1287 orefields are listed in Hubei Minerals Reserve List. Most orefields have such minerals as coal, iron, phosphorus, limestone, copper, gold, troilite, silver, mine salt, niobium, tantalum, glauber salt, dolomite, clay, stone coal and so on. Among 1287 orefields, 90 percent of them are small and medium orefields. Only 6.9 percent of them are large orefields. The minerals such as phosphorus, mine salt, glauber salt, gypsum, iron, copper, gold, silver and dolomite are advantageous minerals in Hubei. Peridotite, iodine, bromine, garnet, rectorite clay for use in fertilizer and diabase for use in construction ranks the first throughout the whole country. There are 57 minerals with recoverable resource extent topping first ten in China. According to recoverable resource extent by the end of 2000, among potential value of mineral resources in China, Hubei has 1472.8 billion Yuan, ranking 14th in China; potential gross value per capita is 24, 800Yuan, ranking 17th in China.

Hubei has various animals and plants. Black stork and other 83 kinds of rare animals are listed in class 1 and class 2 of key national-protected animals, panda, snub-nosed monkey, and a rare migration fish--Chinese Sturgeon, as well as Baiji and suckerfish can also be seen in Hubei. There are 4058 kinds of plants in Hubei, among which 51 are listed as key national-protected rare plants, and the living fossil, several class 1 national-protected plants, namely Chinese Redwood, Dovetree and Henry Emmenopterys still remain on this land. Shennongjia Forest Region is famous as The Forest Sea of Central China and the Natural Zoo and Botanical Garden. 

Industry

Hubei is one of the important industrial bases, and pillar industries, such as metallurgy, machinery, weaving, electricity and etc. Focusing on Wuhan, Huangshi and Yichang, an industrial base along the Changjiang River specialized in metallurgy, machinery, electricity, petrochemical, textile and other light industries has been established; and focusing on Wuhan, Xiangfan and Shiyan, an automobile industrial corridor has been established.

Traditional predominant industries

Automobile industry led by Dongfeng Automobile Group and focusing on manufacturing of light-duty automobile, sedan and automobile parts;

Iron and steel industry represented by Wuhan Iron and Steel Group, Daye Iron and Steel Factory and Echeng Iron and Steel Factory;

Electricity industry represented by Qingjiang Power Company, Hubei Power Company and Sanxia Power Company;

Building material industry represented by Huaxin Cement Factory, Gezhouba Cement Factory, Guanghua Cement Factory and etc.;

Textile and apparel industry features in East-Hubei apparel and Han-style apparel;

Chemical industry focusing on agricultural chemical, phosphorus chemical, salt chemical, fine chemical and petrochemical industries

New predominant industries

IT and photoelectron industries: a high-tech industrial belt along Changjiang River and Han River with Wuhan Optics Valley as the main base and Ezhou-Huangshi-Huanggang, Jingmen-Jingzhou-Yichang and Xiaogan-Suizhou-Xiangfan as the three radial lines has initially formed.

Agriculture

Hubei, as a major agricultural province, has been known as the granary of China. Hubei has sufficient sun light, abundant heat, plentiful precipitation and long frost-free period. Hubei has two major production bases of cotton and grain, Jianghan Plain and North-Hubei highland, and also has abundant resources of mountains and water. Its outputs of grain, cotton and oil plants are in the first places of China.

Science and education

With strong power of science and technology, Hubei has over 2,100 scientific research institutions, among which 11 are national key laboratories and 46 are research institutions controlled by ministries and committees of the country; Hubei has 1.2 million science and technology personnel, which is the 5^th of China, and among them 21 are academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and 22 are academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering. The comprehensive power of science and technology of Hubei is in the leading place of China.

With very developed education, Hubei has been called the talent cradle since ancient times. Currently, Hubei has 75 colleges and universities represented by Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology; its overall arrangement of colleges and universities gradually becomes reasonable and has matching subjects setup and comprehensive specialties. A batch of key subjects and specialties that have influence and features have been established, such as bioengineering, information science, energy sources, laser, micro-electronics, material science and etc. Hubei has a total of 1.38 million postgraduates, college and university students and vocational school students, which is the 2^nd of China, and its primary education has been basically popularized.

Culture and tourism

As the cradle of Chu Culture, Hubei has thick cultural deposit and many cultural relics and historic sites. There are more than 15 thousand unmovable sites of cultural and historic relics, among which 20 are historical and cultural sites under national protection and 154 spots are under provincial protection. Wuhan, Jingzhou, Xiangfan, Suihzou and Zhongxiang are 5 famous historic and cultural cities. Qu Yuan, one of the world’s 4 outstanding masters in culture and the representative Chu Culture, was born in Zigui County; the bell set chime, as known as the 8^th Wonder of the East was unearthed in Leigudun, Suizhou; Tonglushan Site of Ancient Mine, Sword of Goujian and Panlong City of Shang Dynasty, which represent the peak of ancient bronze smelting technology, are all unearthed in Hubei Province; lacquer painting, woodcarving products and ancient silk cloth that demonstrate exquisite techniques are mostly unearthed in Jiangling, Jingzhou. The hometown of the great medical scientist of Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen, the Taoistbuilding group and martial art of Wudang Mountain, and the hometown of the representative of Han Culture, Wang Zhaojun are world-famous for their unique cultural connotations. And the culture of the Three Kingdoms, represented by Jingzhou Ancient City, Puqi Chibi, Xiangfan Longzhong, Dangyang Changbanpo has strong root, and the tea culture, medicine culture, fish culture, bamboo culture and stone culture are all of splendors.

Hubei has beautiful mountains and very abundant tourist resources; currently, there are over 1,500 spots that have tourist value, among which there are over 150 available. Many landscape resources are important in the country even in the world.

Tourist lines: Wuhan urban tourist circle, Changjia Sanxia tourist area, Shennongjia virgin forest ecological tourist area, Chu Culture tourist area, Three Kingdoms cultural tourist area, Dayue Wudang cultural tourist area, folk customs tourist circle.

Famous tourist spots:

Wuhan: East Lake, the Yellow Crane Tower, GuiYuan Temple, the Red Building, Guqintai, Zoo, Moshan Botanical Garden, Moshan Plum Garden, Mulan Lake (Mountain), Hubei Museum.

Yichang: Changjiang Sanxia, Changjiang Qingjiang, Drift on Shennong Rivulet, Dangyang Changbanpo, Yichang Chexi, Hometown of Wang Zhaojun.

Xianning: Thermal Spring, Chibi- Ancient Battlefield of the Three Kingdoms, Lushui Reservoir, Tongshan Jiugongshan.

Jingzhou: Jingzhou Ancient City, Honghu Lake, Songzi Weishui Reservoir.

Shiyan: Wudang Mountain.

Shennongjia: Natural Beauty of the Virgin forest of Shennongjia.

Jingmen: Zhanghe Reservoir, Xian Tomb of Ming Dynasty.

Ezhou, Lianhua Mountain, Liangzi Lake ecological tourist area.

Huanggang: Dabie Mountain, Dongpo Chibi.

Suizhou: Hometown of Shennong

Enshi: Folk customs, Qingjiang Drift, Mountain and Forest Beauties

Xiangfan: Ancient Longzhong

Qianjiang: Zhanghua Palace of Chu State

Traffic and communication

Hubei, as an important traffic hinge of the nation, has very convenient traffic conditions and highways, railways, waterways and flight courses that extend in all directions. A solid transport network with Wuhan as the center and railways, highways, flight courses, waterways and oil and gas pipelines as the framework has been initially formed. In recent years, the mail and communication systems develop very fast, the investment is reinforced and its communication ability is developed.

Development zones

Hubei has three national development zones and over 20 provincial development zones. Through construction and development in recent years, the development zones have become main growth points of the export-oriented economy of Hubei. The main development zones of Hubei are as follows:

National development zones:

1. Wuhan East Lake High-Tech Development Zone

2. Wuhan Economic and Technical Development Zone

3. Xiangfan High-Tech Development Zone

Provincial development zones:

1. Wuhan Yangluo Economic and Technical Development Zone

2. Gedian Economic and Technical Development Zone

3. Huangzhou Science and Technology Development Zone

4. Huangmei Xiaochi Economic and Technical Development Zone

5. Macheng Huangjinqiao Economic and Technical Development Zone

6. Xiangfan Automobile Industry Development Zone

7. Yichang Dongshan Economic and Technical Development Zone

8. Yichang Xiaoting Economic and Technical Development Zone

9. Zhijiang Economic and Technical Development Zone

10. Shiyan Bailang Economic and Technical Development Zone

11. Huangshi Tuanchengshan Economic and Technical Development Zone

12. Jingzhou Chengnan Economic and Technical Development Zone

13. Gong’an Nanping Economic and Technical Development Zone

14. Zhongxiang Huji Economic and Technical Development Zone

15. Shashi Yuqiao Economic and Technical Development Zone

16. Jingmen Duodao Economic and Technical Development Zone

17. Xianning Wenquan Economic and Technical Development Zone

18. Xiaogan New Industry Development Test Area

19. Enshi Hongmiao Economic and Technical Development Zone

20. Hubei Wudang Mountain Tourist Economic and Technical Development Zone

21. Wuhan Longyang Lake Tourist Resort

22. Hubei Honglian Lake Tourist Resort

Economic construction

Reforming and opening up comes for more than 20 years, Hubei insists to deepen reform, enlarges opening, quickens up economic structural adjustment, drives forward new-type industrialization energetically, and its national economy gets continuous, fast, and healthy development. In 2007, the gross value of production of Hubei achieved 627.222 billion Yuan; the accomplished investment of fixed assets was 453.414 billion Yuan, with an increase of 26.9%; the total volume of retail sales of social consumer goods was 402.853 billion Yuan, with an increase of 18.1%; the foreign investment actually used was 3.502 billion U.S. dollars, with and increase of 13.63%; the volume of export was 8.174 billion U.S. dollars, with and increase of 30.6%; the volume of import was 6.684 billion U.S. dollars, with and increase of 22.0%. The total volume of foreign trade achieved in the year was 14.858 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 26.6% comparing with the year before, among which the volume of export was 8.174 billion U.S. dollars, with and increase of 30.6%, and the volume of import was 6.684 billion U.S. dollars, with and increase of 22.0%. 420 projects of direct foreign investment were approved, and 105 enterprises of foreign investment possess an total investment of more than 10 million U.S. dollars each. The total volume of direct foreign investment and other investments of the year was 3.502 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 13.6% comparing with the year before, among which the direct foreign investment was 2.766 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 13.0%, and other foreign investments were 0.736 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase of 16.2%. The business volume of foreign economic cooperation business was 0.623 billion U.S. dollars, and the value of new contracts were 1.957 billion U.S. dollars, respectively increased by 51.5% and 207.2%.

According to the planning design of Hubei for the 11^th %-year plan, the key of the economic development of Hubei is to accelerate new-type industrialization, accelerate the development of and promote the service industry, develop and perfect infrastructures and basic industries.

The development strategy of Hubei for using foreign investment in the 11^th 5-year is to focus on the objective of economic development, with realization of industrial upgrade and strengthening the comprehensive power and domestic and oversea competitive power of our economy as the start point, introduce foreign investment at large scale and high quality, and further reinforce the driving effect of using foreign capital to the development of Hubei’s economy. It mainly embodies in: insisting on making use of foreign investment is the first priority of opening-enlarging of Hubei; insisting on combining making use of foreign investment with reform, restructuring and reconstruction of state-owned enterprises; insisting on combining making use of foreign investment with industrialization of agriculture; insisting on combining making use of foreign investment with break-through development of service industry; insisting on combining making use of foreign investment with optimization of industrial structure, extension of industrial chain and formation of industrial cluster; insisting on combining making use of foreign investment with establishment of new economic growth points and improvement of fast and healthy development of Hubei’s economy, in order to fully promote the quality and level of making use of foreign investment.

On basis of the objectives above, all industries that are in accordance with the planning design for the 11^th 5-year of Hubei are areas where we shall initiatively invite foreign investments; the key points of investment inviting are high-tech industry, automobile industry, metallurgical industry, petrochemical industry, equipment manufacturing industry, building material industry, agriculture, service industry and infrastructures, etc.

1. High-tech industry

To initiatively invite foreign investment and energetically develop industrial group of electronic information, biotechnology, new medicine, new materials, optical-mechanical-electric integration and etc.

1)        Electronic information: To concentrate on development of optical communication system and equipment, mobile communication terminal, new electronic parts and components, laser processing equipment and etc.; energetically develop products of optical display, optical storage, automobile electronics, financial electronics, integrated circuit, software and etc., form a comparatively complete industrial chain of photoelectron information in Wuhan.

2)        Biotechnology and new medicine industry: To concentrate on development of biomedicine, bio-agriculture, bio-energy, bio-environmental protection and etc. To energetically develop agricultural biotechnology products, biomedical engineering products, new pharmaceutical preparations, modern Chinese medicine and etc., initiatively cultivate new breeds of crops, livestock and poultry of high quality and high output, accelerate the development and industrialization of bio-pesticide, bio-fertilizer and bio-veterinary medicine.

3)        New material industry: To concentrate on development of high-performance new materials such as electronic information materials, nano-materials, composite functional materials, laser materials, environment-protective materials, new energy materials and etc.; use foreign investment to convert the scientific advantages in areas like new metal materials, new  organic nonmetal materials, new high molecular materials and new chemical materials into industrial advantages.

4)        Optical-mechanical-electric integrated industry: To concentrate on development of high-performance numerical control systems to establish the ability of large-scale production.

2. Automobile industry

To accelerate the development of production of automobile parts, promote the ability of supporting Dongfeng Automobile and other automobile groups, and energetically blend in the global purchase system of international companies.

1)        Whole-automobile industry: To make use of foreign investment to develop and produce various special automobile, passenger vehicle and electric automobile.

2)        Automobile parts industry: According the development principle of concentration, integration, systematization, scalization and modularization, to break through the development of parts and components of sedan, integrate the resources of parts and components of heavy-duty vehicle and extend toward to the light pole and the heavy pole.

3. Metallurgical industry

To energetically develop deep processing of steel and nonferrous metals, to make use of foreign investment to improve the processing capacity and processing depth of copper and aluminum, development deep processing products, such as sheet copper, copper foil, sheet aluminum, electronic aluminum foil and etc.

4. Chemical industry

1)        Petrochemical industry: To concentrate on key projects like Wuhan Ethylene Project, develop deep processing of downstream products, such as synthetic resin, synthetic fiber, synthetic rubber and other synthetic materials as well as organic chemical materials.

2)        Phosphor chemical industry and salt chemical industry: To give play to the advantages in resources, strengthen deep processing of phosphor and salt resources as well as development of serial products.

3)        Fine chemical industry and agricultural chemical industry: To make use of foreign investment to accelerate the reconstruction and promotion of fine chemical industry in traditional areas like pesticide, dyestuff, paint and etc. and promote the development of fine chemical industry in new areas like feedstuff additives, biochemical products and electrochemical products.

5. Equipment manufacturing industry

1)        Ship: To concentrate on development of ship industry, develop special ships, donkey engine for ship and other parts through joint venture and cooperation, develop dredger, platform work ship, law enforcing ship and etc; to develop special ships like stainless steel chemical ship, oil ship and other liquid cargo ships, as well as container ship, passenger rolling ship and etc.; to develop parts and components of ships, such as low-speed diesel engine, generator, large crankshaft, large cast or forged pieces, donkey engine for ship, vessel, heat exchanger and etc.

2)        Power generating, transmission and transformation: To concentrate on large boiler for power station, new-type steamer generator, high and super-high voltage power transmission and transformation equipment, and utilization unit of new energy and clean energy.

3)        Machine tool industry: To concentrate on NC metal cutting and forging machine tool, as well as new-type equipment for packaging, paper making, grain, textile, cement, metallurgy and coating.

6. Textile and other light industries

To encourage and support foreign investors to participate through acquisition into restructuring and reconstruction of traditional industries that Hubei has advantages and features, such as food, paper, household electrical appliances, textile, dyeing, apparel and industrial textile, etc.

7. Building material industry

To energetically invite powerful domestic and foreign enterprises to develop high and medium-grade building materials, pottery and porcelain ware for toilet, top grade float glass, special glass and deep processing products. To initiatively develop wood-plastic polymeric materials. To develop and produce pollution-free, fire-resistant, waterproof, heat insulating, energy and water saving new wall materials and finish materials.

8. Agriculture

To make use of foreign investment to develop deep processing of agricultural products, form deep processing product series of grain, oil plants, livestock, poultry, aquatic products, fruit and vegetables, forestry specialties and etc.

9. Service industries

To energetically invite in advanced foreign service enterprises and international companies to develop modern service industry, which mainly embodies in cooperation in finance and insurance, information industry, modern logistics, service out-sourcing and tourism, etc.

10. Infrastructures

To encourage foreign investors to participate through multiple means into Hubei’s construction of highway, dock and harbor, energy and urban renewal, etc.