China's Yangtze River rebounding to become "golden waterway"

Traffic on the once-drowsy Yangtze River in China has rebounded since late 1990s, with cargo on the river surging 15 percent annually, noted sources with an international shipping forum in the municipality.

As the longest river in China and one of the largest worldwide,the Yangtze, has great advantages in shipping because of its low cost compared to rail and highway and because of its full capacity of cargo transportation.

Su Xingang, director of the department of waterway transportation under the Ministry of Communications said at the forum last week that in case of the tense transportation in railways and highways, the Yangtze is facing new opportunities in domestic shipping.

According to Su, major ports along the river handled more than 300 million tons of goods and materials in 2003, posing a year-on-year surge of 17.2 percent. The foreign trade reached 70 million tons and the container volume hit 1.4 million TEU.

Currently, the Yangtze River shared approximately half of China's total shipping volume on domestic rivers, with more than 2,000-km-long deep-water line and some 220 ports along the river.

Experts forecast that amid the rapid growth of shipping on the river, the total cargo handled on the river this year may surge 20percent over 2003. And the river's shipping volume may amount to 800 million tons by 2010.

Since China's accession to the World Trade Organization, the construction of the Shanghai International Shipping Center and theDeep-water sea-route at the river mouth of the Yangtze make it easier for overseas vessels to enter the golden waterway.

Su said the river has closely linked China's southwestern, central and eastern parts. Currently three shipping centers along the river have taken shape, namely, the Chongqing-centered southwest part, the Wuhan-centered central China and the Shanghai and Nanjing-centered east China.

Benefiting from the Yangtze, such leading provinces and municipalities along the river as Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan,Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai all reported a great surge intheir Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Foreign trade of these places accounts for about one-third of the country's total.

The 6,300-km-long Yangtze River, rising in the towering yet secluded Tanggula Mountains in southwestern Qinghai Province, flows past a dozen provinces and municipalities, including Qinghai,Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai, where it empties into the East China Sea. Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai are, among others, leading cities along the way.

Areas along the river abind in resources. Statistics show its water area has 36 percent of China's total water resources, and more than 30 kinds of mineral products each sharing more than halfof the country's total reserve.

Source: Xinhua