These 15 hub cities have been upgraded.

Recently, the "15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Comprehensive Transport Hubs" (hereinafter referred to as the Plan), jointly issued by eight departments including the Ministry of Transport, was officially released.

As the blueprint for China's transport hub development in the next five years, the Plan defines the latest positioning of each city in the national transport layout.

The "14th Five-Year Development Plan for the Modern Comprehensive Transport Hub System" released in 2021 clearly puts forward: optimize and improve the service functions of around 20 international comprehensive transport hub cities; accelerate the construction of around 80 national comprehensive transport hub cities.

After 5 years of construction, new changes have taken place in the positioning of many cities. Which cities have been upgraded? Which cities still fail to be included in the list?

01

The Outline of the National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transport Network Plan clearly proposes to build four major international comprehensive transport hub clusters facing the world, namely Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle.

This remains unchanged in the latest Plan. That is, the four core poles of national transport are still Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle.

However, obvious stratification has emerged within the "around 20 international comprehensive transport hub cities", among which the status of 10 cities in the first two tiers has been further clarified.

The first tier: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou. They are clearly positioned to consolidate and enhance their international gateway functions, and strengthen intercontinental connectivity and global radiation capacity. In other words, the international gateway transport hubs with truly top global level are still only Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The second tier: Shenzhen, Chongqing, Chengdu, Kunming, Xi'an, Urumqi, Harbin. Their positioning is to improve their international connectivity and hub radiation functions for specific regions.

How to understand "facing specific regions"? We can refer to the previous international aviation hub construction plan. For example, Urumqi is to build a regional aviation hub facing Central Asia and West Asia. Harbin is to build a complex international aviation hub as a regional gateway facing the Far East and Northeast Asia.

It can be said that the above 10 cities form the top of the pyramid of China's international transport hubs. Compared with the past, their hub status has been further clarified and strengthened.

The third tier includes the remaining 10 cities: Tianjin, Shenyang, Dalian, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Haikou. Their positioning is to expand international links for specific directions based on the specific positioning assigned by the state.

Note that the emphasis here is on "specific positioning". For example, one of the positioning of Shenyang in its overall urban plan is to be an international central city in Northeast Asia.

02

New changes have also taken place in the "around 80 national comprehensive transport hub cities".

The first level includes: Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Hohhot, Changchun, Ningbo, Hefei, Fuzhou, Nanchang-Jiujiang, Jinan, Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan, Nanning, Guiyang, Lhasa, Lanzhou, Xining, Yinchuan.

The list remains unchanged, but their positioning has changed from "improving the agglomeration and radiation capacity" to "giving full play to the core role in passenger and cargo organization of regions and metropolitan areas", with clearer development direction.

The second level previously focused on enhancing the international service functions of hub cities such as Ningbo, Hefei and Changsha. Now it is updated to: Promote hub cities including Ningbo, Hefei, Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan, Qinzhou-Beihai-Fangchenggang, Huanggang-Ezhou-Huangshi, Lianyungang-Xuzhou-Huai'an to improve their international transport networks.

It can be seen that Ningbo and Hefei remain on the list, while Changsha is expanded to the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan cluster. In addition, three new group-style hubs including Qinzhou-Beihai-Fangchenggang, Huanggang-Ezhou-Huangshi, and Lianyungang-Xuzhou-Huai'an are added.

The reasons for their upgrading are not difficult to understand.

For example, the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan region has launched the "Hunan-Guangdong-Africa" international rail-sea combined transport train. Qinzhou-Beihai-Fangchenggang is the international gateway of the New International Land-Sea Corridor in the western region. With Ezhou Huahu Airport, the first professional cargo hub airport in Asia, Huanggang-Ezhou-Huangshi has prominent advantages as an air cargo hub. Lianyungang-Xuzhou-Huai'an integrates the composite advantages of the eastern bridgehead of the New Eurasian Land Bridge, an important railway hub in East China and the "City of Canals".

Therefore, these four regions (clusters) have special advantages in international transport, and this round of upgrading is well expected.

03

The third level, the 2021 Plan states: promote the construction of hub cities including Tangshan-Qinhuangdao, Xiong'an, Handan, Datong, Baotou, Tongliao, Yingkou, Jilin, Qiqihar, Lianyungang-Xuzhou-Huai'an, Suzhou-Wuxi-Nantong, Wenzhou, Jinhua (Yiwu), Bengbu, Wuhu, Quanzhou, Ganzhou, Shangrao, Yantai, Weifang, Linyi, Luoyang, Shangqiu, Nanyang, Xiangyang, Yichang, Huanggang-Ezhou-Huangshi, Yueyang, Huaihua, Hengyang, Zhuhai, Zhanjiang, Shantou-Jieyang-Chaozhou, Liuzhou, Guilin, Qinzhou-Beihai-Fangchenggang, Sanya, Panzhihua, Luzhou-Yibin, Wanzhou-Dazhou-Kaizhou, Guangyuan, Zunyi, Qujing, Dali, Baoji, Yulin, Ankang, Jiuquan-Jiayuguan, Golmud, Zhongwei, Kashgar, Korla, Yining, optimize the layout of hub ports, stations and their collection and distribution systems and connection systems, and improve the functions of cross-regional passenger exchange and material transshipment organization.

This time it is updated to: accelerate the construction of hub cities including Tangshan-Qinhuangdao, Xiong'an, Handan, Datong, Baotou, Tongliao, Yingkou, Jilin, Qiqihar, Suzhou-Wuxi-Nantong, Wenzhou, Jinhua (Yiwu), Bengbu, Wuhu, Quanzhou, Ganzhou, Shangrao, Yantai, Weifang, Linyi, Luoyang, Shangqiu, Nanyang, Xiangyang, Yichang, Yueyang, Huaihua, Hengyang, Zhuhai, Zhanjiang, Shantou-Jieyang-Chaozhou, Liuzhou, Guilin, Sanya, Panzhihua, Luzhou-Yibin, Wanzhou-Dazhou-Kaizhou, Guangyuan, Zunyi, Qujing, Dali, Baoji, Yulin, Ankang, Jiuquan-Jiayuguan, and promote Golmud, Zhongwei, Kashgar, Korla, Yining to focus on improving functions such as material reserve and emergency dispatch.

After comparison, it can be seen that in addition to Lianyungang-Xuzhou-Huai'an, Huanggang-Ezhou-Huangshi and Qinzhou-Beihai-Fangchenggang being upgraded to the second level, the positioning of five other cities has also changed.

That is, Golmud, Zhongwei, Kashgar, Korla and Yining have been changed from the objects of "hub city construction" to the objects of "focusing on improving functions such as material reserve and emergency dispatch". In other words, their positioning is more focused on specific functions.

In addition, a new clause is specially added to "promote the coordinated and linked development of old revolutionary base area cities such as Yan'an with adjacent national hub cities". This means that although Yan'an is not directly included in the major hub list, relying on the opening of the Xi'an-Yan'an high-speed railway at the end of last year and its geographical advantage of being adjacent to many national hubs such as Xi'an, Taiyuan and Yinchuan, it has achieved a breakthrough from "0 to 1" in the national transport hub system.

On the whole, it can be said that the transport hub status of 15 cities (clusters) has been substantially improved this time.

04

Overall, this Plan means that the positioning of different cities' comprehensive transport hubs has a clearer hierarchy.

The formation of this positioning is determined by comprehensive factors such as economy and geographical location. For example, it covers all municipalities directly under the Central Government, provincial capitals and sub-provincial cities. Among the top 30 GDP cities, almost only Foshan, Dongguan and Changzhou are not included in the list.

Of course, this does not mean that the transport status of these cities is unimportant. The main reason is that they are close to key hubs such as Guangzhou-Shenzhen, Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou, and they mainly play the role of regional coordination. At the same time, the transport infrastructure of some cities will also be upgraded in the next few years.

On the one hand, it is clearly required to promote the construction of extra-large railway passenger stations such as Nanjing North Station and Wuhan West Station, as well as comprehensive passenger transport hubs such as Dalian Jinzhouwan Airport and Guangzhou New Airport to optimize new resources;

On the other hand, it will renovate and upgrade old hubs such as Beijing Station, Guangzhou East Station and Chongqing Station, as well as airports including Shanghai Pudong, Nanjing Lukou and Chengdu Tianfu, and promote the multi-modal transport upgrading of Nansha Port Area of Guangzhou Port, Qianwan Port Area of Qingdao Port and major inland ports on the freight side to improve the quality of existing resources.

It can be said that the general pattern of national transport hubs has been determined. However, this Plan also clearly puts forward that "we will optimize the layout of national comprehensive transport hub cities at the right time". This means that some cities still have opportunities for upgrading.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Western City Events", written by Western Jun, and authorized for release by 36Kr.