On May 27, nearly a hundred reporters from over 70 network media paid a visit to Jingzhou, a historical city in southwest Hubei province, as the second stop of the sixth national network media reporters’ trip in Hubei.

They visited Jingzhou Museum, Yanka Port and some key projects in Jingzhou development zone, witnessing the profound historical and cultural accumulation, as well as the prosperous development of the city, thanks to the port and industrial zone.

A guide in the museum introduced in detail the precious cultural relics on display, including silk and lacquerwork from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and a well-preserved female body from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD).

At Yanka Port, the visiting group watched the process of loading and uploading containers. According to Wang Renmei, deputy general manager of Jingzhou Port Group, to which Yanka Port belongs, the total property of the port last year was worth nearly 3 billion yuan ($480.3 million). It accomplished a throughput of 8 million tons of cargo and 100,000 containers, with its major operational quota continually increasing for ten successive years.

Finally, the group inspected the refrigerator industrial park of Midea Co and the workshops for producing motor components of Henglong Co. A staff from Midea said that the refrigerator production center was set up in Jingzhou in 2008, and realized tax revenues of 96 million yuan last year. She added that its tax revenue is expected to break through the 100 million yuan ceiling.

In the new round of opening up and development of the Yangtze River economic belt in Hubei province, if Wuhan, the capital city, were head of the dragon and Yichang the tail of the dragon, Jingzhou would represent the waist of the dragon. Recently, the city is endeavoring to enhance its core competitiveness, aiming to revive its prosperity like that in ancient times and strengthen the waist of the dragon.

Jingzhou Museum in Central China's Hubei province [Photo by Le Qin]

A scene of Yanka Port in Jingzhou city [Photo by Le Qin]

Staff of Midea Group work at the refrigerator production center in Jingzhou.[Photo by Le Qin]??

Edited by Brian Salter