# Toward the "Trillion-Level" Mark: What Hurdles Remain? A Dialogue with Yichang Mayor Chen Honghui

Ask AI · How can green mountains and clear waters be continuously transformed into driving forces for urban development?

Yichang city night view, in 2025, Yichang is expected to receive 141 million domestic tourists. (Interviewee | Photo provided)

Yichang, located at the junction of the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, is an important support city in the Han-Xiang-Yi “Golden Triangle” and a key node connecting the Chengdu-Chongqing and Wuhan urban clusters.

The city leads nationwide in the green intelligent shipbuilding industry, with the new energy battery industry gradually forming a complete industrial chain, and also boasts the unique resources of “Two Dams and One Gorge.”

Public reports show that during the 14th Five-Year Plan, Yichang’s regional GDP has crossed two billion-yuan thresholds, with five industries exceeding 100 billion yuan. Based on this, Yichang has set the goal of accelerating toward a “trillion-yuan” city during the 15th Five-Year Plan.

How will Yichang leverage its local characteristics to achieve the goal of becoming a “trillion-yuan” city? Southern Weekly interviews Yichang Mayor Chen Honghui.

Southern Weekly: Yichang’s green intelligent shipbuilding industry is a characteristic advantage. During the 15th Five-Year Plan, how will this industry be optimized and strengthened to cultivate new productive forces?

Chen Honghui: During the 15th Five-Year Plan, we will promote the upgrading of the shipbuilding industry from four aspects: First, advance the “Electrification of the Yangtze River,” coordinate the construction of the “Four Major Parks” in Yidu, Zhijiang, and others, guiding industry clusters; Second, implement digital transformation of shipbuilding companies, aiming to increase single-ship construction efficiency by 50%, and demonstrate the construction of electric and LNG-powered ships and other new energy vessels; Third, build a full industry chain centered on cruise ship operations, establish two green ship dismantling centers, with Zhijiang Minwa Shipyard already becoming the province’s first ship dismantling enterprise, and plan to put into operation phosphorus mine green demonstration ships and lines in the first half of 2026, accelerating the creation of a “zero-carbon freight corridor”; Fourth, strengthen cross-sector collaboration, develop an integrated air-water manufacturing base in southwestern Hubei, and coordinate river-sea efforts to develop deep-sea exploration equipment, forming a complete industrial ecosystem.

Southern Weekly: Moving toward a “trillion-yuan” city is a core goal of the 15th Five-Year Plan. How will Yichang, with its unique features, specifically deploy efforts to achieve this?

Chen Honghui: First, build a modern industrial system reflecting Yichang’s unique advantages, deeply integrating “industry foundation + technological innovation + financial empowerment,” and accelerate the development of six main and supporting industries: green chemicals, new energy materials, life health, automotive and equipment manufacturing, computing power and big data, and cultural tourism.

Second, create a city characterized by “half mountains and water, half city,” adhering to urban construction, urban nurturing, and urban prosperity, optimizing riverside cityscapes, and building a high-standard central green space. Simultaneously, promote characteristic development of counties based on local conditions and deepen efforts to strengthen agriculture. Accelerate the construction of a regional consumer center city, creating new consumption scenarios aligned with Yichang’s cultural tourism and industrial features.

Third, drive open development through characteristic industries, adhering to “industry drives foreign trade, foreign trade drives foreign investment, and foreign investment drives foreign trade.” Implement the “Yipin Going Global” initiative, strengthen exports of characteristic products like phosphorus chemicals and new energy batteries, enhance the level of free trade zones and comprehensive bonded zones, and build a cross-border e-commerce online service platform. Maintain a market-oriented, rule-of-law, and international first-class business environment to help Yichang’s characteristic industries reach nationwide and connect with the world.

Finally, combine people’s livelihood security with city features, focusing on services for the elderly, children, and special groups, ensuring high-quality delivery of livelihood projects. Rely on the ecological and cultural tourism resources of the Yangtze River to ensure city development has both industrial strength and human warmth.

Southern Weekly: As an important support in the Han-Xiang-Yi “Golden Triangle,” how will Yichang, during the 15th Five-Year Plan, leverage its regional location to improve transportation hub functions?

Chen Honghui: Yichang, positioned at the gateway of western Hubei and eastern Chongqing, promotes regional cooperation from “solo efforts” to “joint ascent.” The core is integrating into three major industrial corridors and strengthening Yichang’s characteristic industries: First, develop a world-class phosphorus chemical recycling industry cluster, integrating into the “Yijing-Jingxiang” new energy and new materials corridor, led by projects like Wanhua Chemical and Chune New Energy, transforming the chemical industry toward fine chemicals and new energy materials; Second, join the “Han-Jing-Yi” life health corridor, relying on Angel Yeast’s national key laboratory to build a national-level biomanufacturing pilot platform and create a regional innovation成果转化基地; Third, integrate into the “Han-Huang-Jing-Yi” high-end equipment corridor, focusing on Yidu Park, promoting projects like Hubei Haike and Shengmao Shipbuilding to start production within the year, establishing the largest green intelligent shipbuilding base in the upper and middle Yangtze River.

Transportation is the foundation of regional cooperation. Yichang is building a comprehensive transportation hub connecting the upper and middle Yangtze River.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan, Yichang’s total investment in transportation will exceed 200 billion yuan, averaging over 1 billion yuan daily, with at least one highway or Yangtze River bridge starting construction each year, and at least one highway or bridge completing and opening for operation.

Southern Weekly: Yichang is a national ecological civilization demonstration zone, also known for its cultural features as the hometown of Qu Yuan and Zhaojun. How will it balance ecological protection and cultural tourism development during the 15th Five-Year Plan to create a distinctive city brand?

Chen Honghui: During the 15th Five-Year Plan, we will prioritize protecting and restoring the Yangtze River’s ecological environment, accelerating the creation of an important showcase for the Yangtze River’s comprehensive protection. First, safeguard the ecological bottom line by continuing the ten major actions to upgrade the high-level protection of the Yangtze River, ensuring water quality in the Yichang section remains at Class II or above, and establishing the Three Gorges (Dam Area) water safety supervision platform and an integrated “air, ground, and underground” disaster prevention system for karst caves; Second, promote a comprehensive green transformation, continuously advancing electrification, hydrogenation, and gasification of the Yangtze River, accelerating the replacement of public, tourism, and phosphorus transport ships with new energy, cultivating circular economy industries like used power batteries and ship dismantling, and building zero-carbon parks and factories; Third, activate the transformation energy of the “Two Mountains” (mountain and water), develop a “water economy,” activate “carbon resources,” establish the Yichang Two Mountains Transformation Operation Center, expand the coverage of “E-Lin Carbon Benefits,” and enable the green mountains and waters of Yichang to continue “monetizing.”

Southern Weekly Reporter: Du Hansan, Intern: Chen Xiaoran

Editor: Du Maolin