"Hubei in Water Transport" connects trunk and branch lines, linking rivers and seas.

The White Emperor is a stronghold of the Three Gorges, and Qutang is more perilous than Bailao Pass. Today’s Three Gorges are no longer the “nightmare” of boatmen described in “Ten Poems of Kuizhou.” Amid the layers of mountains and the surging river, the first major national landmark project of the “Fifteenth Five-Year Plan” period—the new Three Gorges shipping channel—has begun construction. Once completed, the project will significantly enhance the navigation capacity of the Yangtze River’s golden waterway.

The new Three Gorges shipping channel opens a new chapter, and the pilot task of building a strong transportation network in Hubei—modern inland shipping construction—has recently passed inspection, further boosting “Hubei on the water.”

Over the past five years, Hubei has leveraged the natural advantages of the Yangtze River’s golden waterway, fully utilizing the support and driving role of Wuhan as the shipping center of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Focusing on efficient and green inland waterways, environmentally friendly and intelligent ports, and modern green vessels, Hubei has carried out 10 pilot demonstration projects. Guided by these projects, the province has combined point and area strategies to promote high-quality development of modern inland shipping. It has achieved replicable and scalable advanced results and typical experiences in high-level coordination, cross-sector integration, and mechanism innovation.

High-level coordination to fully streamline the trunk and branch shipping network

At the construction site of the preliminary excavation area for the new Three Gorges hub channel in Chenjia Chong Village, Group 2, Letianxi Town, Yiling District, Yichang City, over 300 machines are working simultaneously. Excavators swing their arms, trucks load and unload soil and rocks repeatedly, and the site is bustling with activity. A channel prototype, 945 meters long and 140 meters wide at the base, is gradually taking shape.

Once completed, the total throughput capacity of the Three Gorges–Gezhouba cascade hub will exceed 336 million tons, meeting the forecast demand of 250 million tons by 2050. With the new Three Gorges shipping channel as the leader, Hubei’s inland shipping construction is showing a trend of “multiple breakthroughs and comprehensive advancement.”

During the pilot period, the Hubei Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government adhered to high-level coordination to accelerate the construction of “Hubei on the water.” They promoted the commencement of the new Three Gorges shipping channel, built the Hubei section of the Han-Xiang-Gui inland shipping corridor, implemented key projects such as the 2,000-ton Han River channel, secondary ship locks, and high-grade channels like Tangbai River and Hanbei River. They also planned and promoted major projects to further deepen the channel in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, accelerating high-quality development of the province’s port and shipping industry based on overall coordination, pilot-first principles, and application promotion.

With successive breakthroughs in the construction of high-grade Han River channels and accelerated progress in the Han-Xiang-Gui inland shipping corridor, Hubei is speeding up its efforts to build an inland open highland. “The accelerated smoothness of the inland shipping corridor gives us more confidence to develop,” said Li Caihua, manager of Xiangyang Xinhang Transportation Co., Ltd. He believes that projects like the secondary ship lock at the Yakou hub on the Han River, representing the “three ship locks and one channel” initiative, are key to enhancing the navigability of the Xiangyang section of the Han River. He added that future shipbuilding will focus on vessels weighing 2,000 to 3,000 tons.

Inland shipping becomes more efficient, greener, and smarter

In the opening year of the “Fifteenth Five-Year Plan,” Hubei’s inland shipping is accelerating toward a new stage of high-quality development, driven by technological innovation and underpinned by green and low-carbon principles. From interconnectivity of rail-water transport information to seamless multimodal transport integration, from intelligent vessels navigating the river to unmanned container trucks shuttling through port areas, and from remote “one-click tank cleaning” operations to “one-stop” water services, Hubei’s intelligent and green transformation in shipping vividly illustrates the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

The second phase of the Wuhan Yangluo International Port container rail-water transport project has been fully implemented. Smart equipment such as intelligent gates, automated yards, unmanned container trucks, and intelligent tally systems are widely deployed, effectively opening direct river-sea and China-Europe freight train (Wuhan) transport channels, achieving seamless and efficient rail-water container connections.

The Three Gorges hub has innovatively created a “large diversion, small transfer” rail-water-road multimodal transport demonstration project, pioneering a new model of direct vehicle-to-ship container operations without ground handling. It has built an integrated rail-water transport information system, breaking down port-rail data barriers and achieving efficient coordination in multimodal transport.

Green is the defining feature of high-quality inland shipping development. At the Wuhan Qingshan chemical ship tank cleaning station, a cargo ship carrying benzene is undergoing a fully intelligent cleaning process. “In the past, tank cleaning relied on manual supervision; now, it’s monitored by the system,” said Xiao Wang, an operator at the cleaning station, while monitoring the control console.

In recent years, Hubei has established chemical tank cleaning stations in Wuhan and Yichang, as well as the Wuhan Xinwuli water-based green service area. Leveraging intelligent tank cleaning systems, it has achieved remote one-click tank cleaning. Addressing challenges such as high elevation differences and long-distance power supply in the Three Gorges reservoir area, Hubei has independently developed specialized equipment like intelligent cable retracting systems and T-shaped interface boxes, innovating six types of shore power supply modes. The province’s green energy utilization at ports ranks among the top nationwide.