Sino-French Wuhan Ecological Demonstration City is located at the area of Houguan Lake of Caidian District in Wuhan City of Hubei Province. The area of planned urban construction lands for this Demonstration City is about 30 square kilometers. The scope of this Demonstration City extends to Caidian District eastward, reaches Houguan Lake southward, runs to Xinnong Village of Caidian District and connects Han River to the north.

This project area has many exceptional advantages as follows:

Firstly, the locational conditions are advantageous. Wuhan, located in the center of China geographically, is the largest transportation hub with comprehensive waterway, land and airway transportation system in China. Wuhan City is about 1,000 km from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The Ecological Demonstration City is located at the southwest of Wuhan City and the south side of Han River, being adjacent to the main urban area. This Demonstration City is 20 kilometres from the Tianhe Airport and it only takes 30 minutes to drive there. The distance between the Demonstration City and three railway stations (Wuhan Railway Station, Hankou Railway Station and Hanyang Railway Station) is 20-50 kilometres. It only takes less than 45 minutes to drive to those railway stations.

Secondly, the traffic network is well-developed. The traffic network within the project area has been well-developed and accessible from all directions, including 2 waterways (Yangtze River Golden Waterway and Han River Golden Waterway), 3 expressways (3^rd Ring Road, Caidian Expressway and 4^th Ring Road), 4 main roads (Xintian Avenue, Zhiyinhu Avenue, Qinchuan Avenue, Kuaihuoling Avenue ) and 5 railways and subways (Xi’an-Wuhan-Fuxhou High Speed Railway, Xiantao-Tianmen-Qianjiang Intercity Railway, Line 4, Line 11 and Line 12 of Wuhan Metro).

Thirdly, the ecological environment is beautiful. In the vicinity of the project area, there are two national forest parks (including Jiuzhen Mountain and Songyang Mountain) of which the area totals to over 40000 mu and the forest coverage rate is higher than 90%. What’s more, the 300-square kilometer lakes (of which the water quality has reached Class III and above), 116-square kilometer internationally graded Chenhu Lake Wetland Natural Reserve and the over 70-square meter nationally graded Houguan Lake Urban Wetland Park have constituted to the largest "Green Lung" in suburbs of Wuhan City. In addition, the 110-kilometre Houguan Lake Suburban Greenway has been constructed at the expense of 1.3 billion Yuan, which has contributed to a locally and nationally well-known beautiful ecological environment with fascinating mountains, waters, countryside scenery and forests.

Fourthly, this project area is rich in cultural deposits. Caidian District is the hometown of Zhiyin Culture (develops from the story between Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi who are bosom friends). Two thousand years ago, Yu Boya (the Scholar-official serving for Jin Dynasty during the Spring and Autumn period) has met Zhong Ziqi (a woodcutter of Chu Dynasty during the Spring and Autumn period) at the Ma’an Mountain by chance. Even though they met each other for the first time, they have become friends keenly appreciative of each other’s music talents. Zhiyin Culture has delivered the spirit of integrity, equality, harmony and gratefulness, which has spread through the ages. Zhiyin Culture has become the humanistic spirit of Caidian District and an important part of Chinese traditional culture and Chu culture.

Fifthly, the industrial foundation is solid. This project area not only links the Wuhan Motor City and Airport Economic Zone, but also surrounded many important economic and development zones (Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone, Wuhan Airport-neighboring Economic and Development Zone, Huangjinkou Industrial Park, Caidian Changfu Industrial Development Zone) and national and provincial industrial parks (Zhuankou and Fenghuan Mountain Industrial Park). In general, the industrial system has been well-developed within this project area, which has attracted thousands of enterprises above designated size and thus contributed to good industrial foundation. Caidian District has also become an ideal choice for Global 500 companies and China’s top 500 enterprises and large-scale central enterprises to locate their production bases or regional headquarters, including Admiral Oversea Corporation, Beiersdorf, China Nuclear Building Materials Co., Ltd., China State Decoration Group Co., Ltd., China Construction Steel Structure Co., Ltd., China Railway Wuhan Bridge Industries Limited, Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group Co., Ltd., Faurecia, and People Electrical Appliance Group.

Lastly, French companies and personnel are highly concentrated within this project area. There are two automotive complete vehicle manufacturers within 3 kilometers of the Houguan Lake district, including Shenlong Peugeot Citroen Automobile Company (a joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Group and PSA Peugeot Citroen) and Dongfeng Renault Automobile Company (a joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Group and French Renault Group). The living facilities within this project area are well-developed, including the French Street which has modeled the streetscape of Seine River, Golden Harbor located in the area of Houguan Lake in Caidian District, the over 1500-mu Wuhan Sports Center (including the stadium which is capable of accommodating 60000 people, the sports hall which is capable of accommodating 13000 people and the swimming pool which is capable of 3200 people), the 500000-square meter Wuhan Shimao Carnival Theme Park, Wuhan Tianwaitian Golf Club and Wuhan Shimao Longwan Golf Club. All those facilities has made this project area into an ideal gathering place for French people in Wuhan to enjoy special foods, have a relaxation, shop for fashion products, and appreciate the art and cultural and educational exhibitions. In addition, many automobile spare parts manufacturers with shares controlled by French enterprises have also locate their operations within the area of Houguan Lake in Caidian District, including Auchan Group Carrefour, Faurecia GSK Wuhan Automotive Seating Co., Ltd., Faurecia Wuhan Industrial Park, Valeo Automotive Lamp Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Trecang Automotive Interior Trim Parts Co., Ltd.

Industry orientation and planning of Sino-French Wuhan Ecological Demonstration City

The Sino-French Wuhan Ecological Demonstration City will be built into a “Sino-French Cooperation City”, “Low-carbon Demonstration City”, “Industrial Innovation City” and “Ecologically Livable City” in accordance with the concept of overall planning, city-industry integration, ecological protection and urban integration. Relevant technologies and experiences accumulated in Chinese and French urban planning, design, construction and management (especially those applied in French towns) will be learnt. Eco-environment technologies in renewable energy, low-carbon transportation system and green buildings will be applied with emphasis. In addition, the priority will be given to demonstrations of ecological environment protection and industrial innovation in order to achieve the coordinated development of industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization.

As to the industrial orientation, the following four industries will be developed with emphasis basing on the comprehensive analysis of unique industrial development needs of this Ecological Demonstration City.

1. High-end service industry: High-end industries related to the leisure, ecological tourism, tourism service, business hotel, exhibition, wedding celebration service, health and aged-care service will be developed with emphasis. (1) The newly built Hanyang Railway Station and other advantageous conditions such as the large flow of people, materials and information brought by the high-speed railway and subway system will be fully utilized to build high-speed railway related business districts, high-end business hotels and headquarters buildings to develop industries related to business office, exhibition service and headquarters economy. (2) Business streets with Chinese and French features and large business complexes will be built to attract high-end French and international brands, and the tourism shopping and leisure & entertainment industry will be developed to generate the best result by developing synergistically with existing projects such as Shimao Carnival within and surrounding the project area. (3) The international Central China wedding dress showground, international wedding product transaction center, wedding etiquette headquarter base, wedding vocational villages and hotels, and wedding tourism attractions will be developed to form a complete wedding industrial chain by integrating French fashion, romantic elements and the mutually understanding culture. (4) The health and aged-care industry will be developed by building large hospitals and other facilities related to recovery, rehabilitation, medical examination, life cultivation and health preservation, aged-care, demonstration and promotion of traditional Chinese medicine.

2. High-tech innovation industry: Industries related to high & new technologies and scientific and technological researches and developments will be developed with priority. (1) French high and new technologies and enterprises will be introduced and attracted to build the Sino-French Technology Valley, and industries relevant to the software development, system integration, software outsourcing and chip design will be developed vigorously by taking advantage of opportunities brought by the program of developing national smart cities. (2) As this project is adjacent to Wuhan Motor City and Airport Economic Zone, unique locational advantages brought by it will be utilized to construct the automobile center, general aviation center, research and development center, museum, experience center and other projects with multiple functions such as R&D, sales and exhibition.

3. Ecological demonstration industry: Industries related to ecological plantation, ecological tourism and ecological environmental protection will be developed with emphasis. (1) The well-developed transportation system within this project area will be utilized to introduce French agricultural technologies and development ideas into the area of Shihu and Han River, to develop farm villages and wine chateaus with strong French features, to construct large-scale experience projects which are locally and nationally influential and attractive, and to develop ecological tourism and ecological plantation energetically. 2. The idea of recycling economy will be implemented comprehensively to promote cleaner production, optimize the energy structure, and to promote the utilization of clean energy and renewable resource and energy vigorously. The scientific and technological innovation ability will be strengthened and the industrial structure will be optimized to achieve the highly efficient economic cycle. In addition, the circular economy zone will be constructed and the ecological environment protection industry will be developed, too.

4. Characteristic industry: Industries related to educational exchange and cultural creation will be developed with emphasis. (1) Advanced French educational concepts and methods will be learnt and Sino-French cooperation and exchange colleges will be established to develop the international French language and Chinese language training market. (2) The Zhiyin Culture (develops from the story between Boya and Zhong Ziqi who are bosom friends) will be utilized to develop Sino-French Artist Villages where the Zhiyin Culture oriented cultural and creative industry parks, artist workshops, folk cultural streets, artist studios and hotels will be constructed in order to develop the cultural and creative industry.