Harboring global ambitions

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Two of the nine piers at Chongqing's Cuntan Inland Port are able to load cars onto ships. Located in Liangjiang New Area, the port is expected to handle 1 million containers annually in three to five years. Yuan Zhiqiang / China Daily

A church in Liangjiang New Area, which is the third national development and opening-up zone and the first in inland China. Wang Jing / China Daily

Newlyweds pose for photos in Liangjiang New Area. The area is home to the largest convention center in western China, residential developments and green space. Wang Jing / China Daily

Editor's note:

Chongqing lies at the convergence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers and its position has enabled it to act as a crossroads for inland trade. But the municipality's ambitions extend beyond its borders. China Daily recently explored the city and its focus on becoming a major international trade hub.

With water, air and rail links, Chongqing plans to become China's top inland hub for domestic and international trade

Chongqing, a growth-spurt city in China's awakening southwest, has been compared to Chicago because, like that Midwestern US city in the 19th century, it stands as a gateway to development of a nation's western frontier. But Chongqing, one of four municipalities under the central government's direct control - and a pilot city that is pioneering China's inland development - could just as easily be compared to Texas, the US state that prides itself on doing everything on a grand scale. From cavernous new convention center facilities to bustling mega ports on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Chongqing has taken to heart the Texas "big is best" spirit in its recent urban growth.

This is evident throughout the city, but especially in Liangjiang New Area, where construction cranes perched atop new high-rises are as common a sight as the lush foliage and countless trees that line the city's highways and boulevards.

Driving this growth, as the mountain-hemmed city of 30 million people overtakes the farmland and villages of its rich past, is a vision of Chongqing stepping onto the world stage.

"We want to become an international city," says Du Shulin, deputy director of Liangjiang New Area's information office.

Noting that coastal cities such as Shanghai have long enjoyed the fruits of robust investment and bustling exports, Du says: "We think it's our turn now."

It's evident that a "bigger is better" spirit is guiding the growth of Liangjiang New Area, the third national development and opening-up zone in China (after Shanghai's Pudong New Area and Tianjin's Binhai New Area) and the first such area in inland China.

"Big projects and big planning - everything is big," Zhang Li, an associate research fellow with the Liangjiang New Area, says when describing the city's approach to becoming China's next major trade hub.

Take, for instance, the city's newest port on the Yangtze River, Guoyuan Inland Port. (Chongqing has eight ports along three rivers.) Built atop what used to be a riverside village, Guoyuan features 16 piers - 10 for loading and unloading cargo containers, three for automobile shipments and three for non-container goods. At 2,800 meters long, it is also inland China's largest port.

The port's steady water levels through all four seasons will make Guoyuan available year-round to even the largest cargo ships, says Liu Jian, general manager of Guoyuan Port Container Corp.

Guoyuan is a sleeping giant, however. Its rail link won't be finished until October, with its opening set for next year's Spring Festival, Liu says. And the port, which opened in December, is still in low gear.

"Because this port is new, shipping companies need time to plan and know the port. They are still making arrangements," Liu explains. Even so, the port expects to handle 100,000 cargo containers this year, 350,000 next year and 800,000 in just five years, he adds.

In the meantime, Cuntan Inland Port is the workhorse among Chongqing's ports. "While Shanghai is an important port at the end of the Yangtze River, Cuntan is an important port at the start of the river," says Qu Hong, general manager of port operator Chongqing International Container Terminal. "Of all the goods transported from Chongqing to overseas, 90 percent of them are transported from here."

Cuntan, which is 1,316 meters long, features nine piers, seven of which can load cargo simultaneously, and two of which are specially designed for loading cars onto ships. On one recent occasion, a five-deck cargo ship with 1,300 cars made in Chongqing was anchored offshore, awaiting the journey to Shanghai.

In 2006, when the port opened, 46,000 cargo containers, import and export combined, came through Cuntan, Qu says. Last year, the port handled 650,000 containers and expects to handle 700,000 this year.

As Chongqing's industry is developing so rapidly, port officials foresee 1 million containers a year going through Cuntan in three to five years, Qu says, adding that the port's maximum capacity is 1.4 million cargo containers a year.

One advantage of Cuntan port is that its meat and fruit distribution center is built on a hillside beside the port. This is a coup for Cuntan, considering the stricter regulations on the shipment of such products by water versus air. Guoyuan's Liu says his port will have no such facility.

However, when Guoyuan is completed, it will be the only inland port to boast water, road, rail and air links - linchpins for Chongqing's ambition to become inland China's most accessible trade hub.

With an eye to boosting import traffic and domestic demand along with facilitating the exports from Chongqing's growing industrial might, the river city is additionally taking full advantage of its land connections, particularly the Chongqing-Xinjiang-Europe railway, which is part of the new Silk Road.

"Its original purpose was for an export channel," Ling Yueming, director general of the administrative committee of Liangjiang New Area, says of the 11,000-km railway that links Chongqing and Duisburg, Germany, by way of Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland (and which makes trade stops in all those countries).

"But we're also strengthening efforts to bring back cargoes from European countries," Ling, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee, says in an exclusive interview. "By organizing return cargo, we reduce the trade deficit between China and Europe and reduce logistical costs."

Ling also observes that an over-reliance on exports is not sustainable. "Our economic development cannot progress without the rest of China and the world. And the development of China relies on three 'horse carriages': Domestic demand, exports and investment."

While coastal cities rely on exports to drive economic development, Chongqing is looking to ride all three 'carriages' to sustain growth. In addition to stoking domestic demand for Chongqing's manufacturing industry - which includes laptop computers, cars, helicopters and small airplanes - the city aims to attract investment by streamlining the registration process for new enterprises.

"All enterprises can go through the registration process with just one application table now, one window, and finish in one day," notes Ling. "This simplification of business registration procedures will change pre-approval into post-registration. For business registration, we will no longer ask a bank for a deposit letter. (An enterprise) will just have to promise they will get capital ready in three to six months. This is an efficient way to cut costs." Ling says such reforms will also help accelerate local development.

Chongqing is also taking steps to feed traffic into the bourgeoning trade hub, and Liangjiang New Area recently launched an English-language website to highlight success stories in an attempt to attract investment and foreign trade, especially from Europe.

To showcase what is available for import, the city built a commodity-trading exhibition center, a sprawling venue where wholesalers (and eventually retail shoppers) can visit numerous shops to preview available goods, from American-made autos to French wines.

To entice tourist and business trade to the New Area, the city has additionally constructed the super-sized Yuelai Exhibition & Convention City, which general manager Shi Jian says is the biggest in western China. Located just 15 minutes from the airport, the center features an adjacent five-star hotel (still under construction), 18 restaurants, exhibition areas, a grand ballroom and a 20,000-square-meter multifunctional hall that can hold 15,000 to 20,000 people. This versatile space is one of only four such pillarless halls in China, according to Shi.

The Yuelai Exhibition & Convention City will be surrounded by residential buildings and green space, and Shi envisions that the area will eventually become a "sustainable smart city" with its own parks and schools, a projected population of 80,000 and a total area of 12 million square meters.

While Chongqing is looking forward to a booming future, its planners also are mindful of the city's past and taking steps to preserve the heritage of such places as Longxing (which means Prosperous Dragon) Ancient Town, where winding stone streets are lined with ancient temples and ancestral halls, and where some families still draw their water from old wells.

The city also is resurrecting its past by building a replica of Old Chongqing in the New Area. The true-to-size buildings, faithfully reconstructed in old stone and brick, will eventually cover 350,000 square meters within the Liangjiang International Film City, where part of the 2012 movie Back to 1942 was filmed.

Visitors can stroll along streets that duplicate 1940s-era Chongqing - including shops, restaurants, a theater and a Flying Tigers Club - and climb stone stairways that follow the steep hillsides that look out on rows of mist-covered mountains.

Contact the writers through kangbing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/18/2014 page16)