Satellite View of Yangtze River Delta Integration | "Flowing Yangtze River Delta" Accelerating Integration Anhui | Cities | Yangtze River Delta

The picture shows the changes in freight volume from Anhui to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai over the past five years. Transportation, connecting production and consumption, is a key support for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.

In August 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping urged the responsible comrades of Anhui to deepen the reform of the system and mechanism, strengthen the construction of urban infrastructure, ecological environment and business environment, smooth the transportation network connected with the central cities of the Yangtze River Delta, and improve production. The convenience and comfort of life will better attract and undertake the transfer of capital, technology, industry, and talents in the Yangtze River Delta.

At the junction of Xuancheng in Anhui and Nanjing in Jiangsu, a road only 3.5 kilometers long was once a dead end road. With the acceleration of transportation integration construction in the two provinces, by breaking down administrative barriers and improving policy coordination, this "dead end road" was successfully completed in September 2022. This change has excited Ding Hongguo, an entrepreneur from Xuanzhou District of Xuancheng City. Now, he can take the highway within a few minutes from the company and directly reach Nanjing, which has close business dealings. "The journey from Xuancheng to Nanjing can save about 40 minutes compared to before, with an average daily logistics cost savings of nearly 2000 yuan," said Ding Hongguo.

According to the latest data from Anhui Provincial Department of Transport, the inter provincial "dead end road" involving the province has been basically opened up. Four sections of the five inter provincial highway projects, including Mount Huangshan Qiandao Lake and Gaochun Xuancheng, have been fully completed. Ningguo Anji Expressway is planned to be completed by the end of 2023. As of the end of 2022, Anhui Province has connected 19 inter provincial high-speed exports to the Yangtze River Delta region. In addition, by deepening the reform of the toll road system, canceling 26 toll stations on provincial highways, optimizing and adjusting the billing methods for highway tolls, we can achieve the goal of "stepping on the accelerator pedal to the bottom" on highways, and promote a smoother transportation network between Anhui and other cities in the Yangtze River Delta.

Here, the traffic barriers caused by different administrative divisions are gradually disappearing, and the accessibility and smoothness of inter provincial road networks are accelerating, laying the foundation for the integration of industry, technology, and other aspects.

Hefei Weitian Yuntong Information Technology Co., Ltd. has a heavy truck "Internet+Logistics" platform with huge data scale. Its platform data shows that freight logistics between the Yangtze River Delta is becoming increasingly "busy". Taking the freight volume from Anhui to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai as an example, the freight volume from January to April 2023 is about three times that of the same period in 2018.

In August 2020, when hosting a symposium on the solid promotion of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta in Hefei, Anhui, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that it is necessary to explore the use of social security cards as a carrier to establish a "one card" for residents' services, in transportation, tourism, and cultural experience. Take the lead in realizing "same city treatment".

From a satellite perspective, overlooking the Yangtze River Delta region, for the past three years, railway construction sites have been scattered and new railways have been built crisscrossing the area. The Yangtze River Delta railway map, which is woven into a network, interconnected, and continuously expanding, enables all prefecture level cities in the Yangtze River Delta region except Zhoushan to achieve "city city to city high-speed trains", and high-speed trains to operate in a public transportation manner. The "1-hour to 3-hour living circle" has become a reality, and the "same city" effect is constantly expanding.

According to data from China Railway Shanghai Group Co., Ltd., since 2019, the operating mileage of railways in the Yangtze River Delta region has steadily increased, and investment in railway infrastructure construction has maintained a high level of operation, with continuous growth.

The integration of transportation is gradually breaking down urban boundaries, providing residents in the Yangtze River Delta region with a "seamless" experience between cities. Shen Lingnan, a technical expert of Alipay, said that with the maturity and application of technologies such as remote code scanning and blockchain, a major difficulty in cross city travel - remote ticket settlement has also been solved. Starting from December 2019, various major triangle cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Hefei, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Xuzhou, Changzhou, etc. have implemented the "same city treatment" of one code subway access.

The picture shows the Phase III project of Wuhu Port Container Terminal under construction, which will adopt an intelligent remote operating system after completion.

The Yangtze River Delta is named after the Yangtze River. This great river, which flows from the snow capped mountains to the east and into the sea, has accumulated the wealthiest section downstream. In terms of geographical map, cities in the Yangtze River Delta have become shining pearls on China's regional economic map, thanks to the Yangtze River's "string of pearls forming a line" and now to the integration policy's "connection forming a surface".

Bridge cranes waving, heavy trucks passing through, and giant ships coming and going, entering Wuhu Port, the container terminal is bustling with activity. In March 2021, the customs supervision model of "linkage unloading" between Wuhu Port in Anhui and Yangshan Port in Shanghai was officially launched. As the unloading port, Wuhu Port has achieved integrated operation of linkage unloading with Yangshan Port, and the linkage effect has rapidly emerged. In 2022, the national logistics hub of Wuhu Port completed a port cargo throughput of 135 million tons, ranking fifth in the total number of Yangtze River trunk ports. The foreign trade freight volume was 4.42 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 40.3%. At present, Wuhu Port is accelerating the construction of the third phase of the container terminal project.

Dingbu Port is located in Langxi County, Xuancheng City, Anhui Province, at the border of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. It is an important achievement in the construction of the Jiangsu Anhui Cooperation Demonstration Zone. Satellite photos show that this busy port, where ships and vehicles shuttle, was still an empty land in 2017. With the route running through three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta, Dingbu Port has completed a cumulative cargo throughput of 12.61 million tons since its opening in 2019. The locals proudly claim that this once unknown "small ferry" has become a "large dock" connecting the river and the sea.

Sitting on the Yangtze River, facing the Pacific Ocean, the ancient and young land of the Yangtze River Delta is blooming with the brilliance of a new era.

Producer: Cheng Ying, Yang Yuhua, Yu Weiya

Technology: Mi Yaqi, Pang Zile

Satellite remote sensing and technical support: Zeng Yingying, Gu Ning, and Guo Chao

New Media Center of Xinhua News Agency

State Key Laboratory of Media Integration Production Technology and System

Jointly produced by Xinhua News Agency Anhui Branch