To the west of China's Hubei Province,Yichang is where the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River are divided. Thanks to its advantageous geographic location, Yichang has been defined as a distributing center, an important trading port and a transportation hub along the Yangtze river linking west Hubei and east Sichuan since ancient times. For a very long time, it has been renown as "Gateway to the Three Gorges", and "Throat between Sichuan and Hubei". Today,Yichang remains a brisk river port of China, controlling the access to Chongqing City to its southwest.
In ancient times Yichang was known as Yiling. There are historical records telling that in the year 278 BC during the Warring States period the Qin general Bai Qi set fire to Yiling. Yichang was also the site of a famous battle during the Three Kingdoms era, the Battle of Yiling.
In 1876, under the Qing Emperor Guangxu, Yichang was opened to foreign trade as a trading port after the Second Opium War with Britain. The imperial government set up a navigation company there. Wharves were built as well, but before 1949 the wharf area was only less than half a kilometer in length.After 1949, more than 50 wharves have been constructed at the port so that its wharf area is now over 15 km long. There are the shiplocks at Gezhouba Water Control Project.
During WWII when China was fighting with Japan, an encounter battle (Hui Zhan) happened in the area.
From barranca to mountaintop,there are green broad-leaved woods, broad-leaved mixed forest and needle leaf woods.In the river valley area ,there are palms ,camphor trees of tropical zone,and forests such as mandarin orange,tea trees of subtropical zone.In the hills and low mountain area ,rare trees like pine, the cypress ,China fir,ginkgo,dove tree and so on can be easily found.There are more than 17 million mu (1133333 hectares) land fit for planting trees.The reserve of lumber is more than 24 million m3, 48% of its land surface is covered with forest. It's one of the most important areas that produces lumber in Hubei Province.There are various local specialities in Yichang.Yichang enjoys nationwide reputation for its high-quality tea-leaves and oranges.
In Yichang there are large quantities of rare animals, birds such as Chinese sturgeon, south China tiger, snub-nosed monkey, musk deer, golden monkey and some other state protection kinds. Altogether,there are 363 kinds of land vertebrate in Yichang.
Transportation and communication in Yichang are developing rapidly. Yichang arterial highways extend to every corner, No.318 National Highway crosses the whole Yichang City,through which you may reach Shanghai in the east and Tibet in the west."The Golden Water Route" of the Yangtze runs through Yichang and it reaches Wanzhou City,Chongqing City in the west and Wuhan City, Shanghai City in the east. The express from Yichang to Wuhan, Beijing,Xi'an and the railway from Yichang to Zhenzhou City,Wuxi City,Huaihua City,Guangzhou City were put into use long ago and an international railway container transport network was also established. Air transport conditions are advantageous.Yichang civil airliners can fly to China's 23 large and middle cities ,such as Beijing ,Shanghai, Guangzhou,Shenzhen.The international temporary air-liners was opened,too.
