As the provincial seat of Hubei and briefly known as Han, Wuhan is the biggest metropolis in middle China, one of the 7 core cities and the super large city at the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The city administers 13 districts, 3 state-level development areas (namely, the Wuhan Economic & Technology Development Zone, Wuhan East Lake High-Tech Development Zone, Wujiashan Taiwan Businessman Investment Zone), with a total area of 8,467.11 square kilometers and a population of permanent resident of 8.58 million. In 2008, the GDP of Wuhan amounted to RMB 397 billion, with an increase of 15.1% over the previous year and a per capita GDP of RMB 40,551.

Wuhan is the biggest industrial and commercial city in middle China, with a complete industrial system in respect of iron/steel, automobile, optical electronics, chemical making, metallurgy, textile, ship-building, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals etc. The economic foundation and strength have surpassed other cities in Hubei by large margins. Especially with its economy growing quickly in recently years, Wuhan’s GDP proportion in Hubei’s total GDP volume has been increasing steadily.

Historically, Wuhan is called “the thoroughfare of nine provinces”, the biggest inland hub of land, water and air transportation in China, with the function of connecting the east with west, the south with the north and holding together all directions. Wuhan is becoming one of the big railway transportation hubs in China, as well as the important open port hub in the drainage areas of Yangtze River in China.