Economic powerhouse rising in Central China

Hubei's capital Wuhan and its neighboring areas form one of China's fastest-growing regions, and this area is rapidly starting to rival the Yangtze River and Pearl River deltas and the Bohai Economic Rim.

Home to many world-class industrial clusters, including automotive, iron and steel manufacturing as well as petrochemicals and shipbuilding, Wuhan was actually one of China's earliest centers of industrial development in modern history.

When New China was founded six decades ago, a number of the central government's most important industry and transportation projects were planned in the city.