Wuhan is the provincial capital of HubeiProvince. It is an economic, scientific, technological and cultural center of Central China, and the most important central city in Central China. The city now has a total of 13 districts, with an area of 8494.41 square kilometers. It has a population of 8.30 million，of which non-agricultural population is 4.60 million.

ChangjiangRiver, the 3rd longest river of the world, joints with its largest branch Han River in the urban area, which divide Wuhan into three parts.The three major districts, Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang form a tripartite confrontation pattern. Thus, Wuhan is renowned as “RiverCity”.

Wuhan enjoys great reputation for its favorable geographic location, which connects with nine provinces. In respect of China’s economic geographic zones, Wuhan is situated in the geometrical center of the rhombic area shaped by three largest city economic zones (Jingjintang Economic Zone, Changjiang River Delta Economic Zone and Zhujiang River Delta Economic Zone) and four municipalities directly under the Central Government of China (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing). It also lies at the joint of Changjiang economic chain and Jingguang economic chain. Therefore, Wuhan possesses advantageous location. Its geographic competition capability ranks the fourth in China, only after Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. It is called the economic geographic center of China.

In recent years, Wuhan’s economy has kept a steady, rapid and favorable development. The economic growth rate occupies the front rank among large-scale and medium-scale cities in China, and is much higher than the average level of that of China and Hubei province. According to relevant reports of the United Nations in 2002, Wuhan ranks the sixth place among China’s 25 cities of optimal economic development environment and competition capability.

Gross economic volume:The GNP of Wuhan in 2004 was 195.6 billion yuan, increased by 14.5% calculated according to comparable prices. The increasing rate rose by 2.4 percentage points, which was the highest in 7 years. The added value of the first industry was 10.3 billion yuan, increased by 5.2%, a rise of 0.9 percentage points. The added value of the second industry was 90.3 billion yuan, increased by 17.8%, a rise of 5.0 percentage points. The added value of the third industry was 95.0 billion yuan, increased by 13.0%, a rise of 0.5 percentage points.

Financial incomes:The financial incomes of the whole year reaches RMB 28.860 billion yuan, increasing by 25％ over the previous year.

Economic structureIndustrial structure:Industrial structure continues adjusting. By adjustment, the industrial structure changes from 5.7:44.6:49.7 of the previous year to 5.3：46.2：48.
Investment structure:In 2004, Wuhan accomplishes fixed assets investment of RMB 82.22 billion yuan, increasing by 14.4％ over the previous year. Of which capitalconstruction investment is RMB 32.328 billion yuan, increasing by 30.2％ over the previous year.，renovation and reformation investmentis RMB 18.51 billion yuan, increasing by 25.3％ over the previous year. the investment in real estate is RMB 22.33 billion yuan, increasing by 37.6％ over the previous year..
Employment structure: Employees of Wuhan are 4175000 at the end of the 2004, rising by 1.3％ over the previous year.

Foreign economyIn 2004, the total export-import volume of Wuhan (customs statistics) was 4.298 billion dollars, increased by 37.1% compared with the previous year, of which export 1.931 billion dollars, increased by 30.4%; import 2.367 billion dollars, increased by 43.0%.

Domestic trade: In 2004, the total retail value of social consumer goods of Wuhan amounts to 96.058 billion yuan, increasing by 12.5% over the previous year.