By 2020, four new rail-water-road ports and nine specialized ports will have been built in Chongqing, and the aggregate cargo handling capacity of the municipality is expected to hit 220 million tons.
"With these new ports, the influence of the Yangtze on the economy will grow substantially," said Lin.
The Yangtze is the world's busiest river. More than 2.3 billion tons of cargo went through ports on the main stream last year, up 6 percent. This includes 330 million tonnes of exports and around 15 million containers.
Even Nanjing Port, nearly 40 years old, has shown new dynamism. Since its channel was deepened to 12.5 meters, the port's capacity has exceeded 100 million tons.
Shi Fei, director of development with Nanjing Port Group, said the deeper channel had turned Nanjing into an international port able to accommodate ships of up to 80,000 tonnage.
"When I left college and joined Nanjing Port in 1981, I never expected the port to be world-class," said Shi. "About 90 percent of the world's ships can now anchor in Nanjing."
The waterway from the estuary of the Yangtze to Nanjing was only 7 meters deep in 1998. The channel depth in Jiangsu has been gradually increased, first to 8.5 meters and then 10.5 meters, making it navigable by bulk carriers and oil tankers.
To make optimum use of the waterway, the Ministry of Transport has been encouraging the standardization of ships and development of larger ships.
CLEANER RIVER, MORE TOURISTS
Wu Song, a resident of Yichang City in the middle reaches of the Yangtze, runs www.yangtze.com and helps foreign tourists book cruises.
He has seen some major changes since the formation of the economic belt: polluting factories have been closed and water quality control is now more strict.
"Foreigners are here not just to see the river, but also Chinese culture and the lives of Chinese people. An improving environment not only benefits the locals, but attracts more visitors," he said.
"I never think of Yichang as a small town. Yichang is wide open to the world. Without the river, I would not meet so many guests from across the globe," Wu said.
As the stars of the provinces along the Yangtze rise, people are choosing to leave coastal cities in the east and return to their hometowns.
Wang Ting, a welder, worked in Shanghai for seven years. He has returned to settle down in his hometown of Wuhan, and now earns more money working in an auto part factory.
"The port of Yichang was not so crowded by migrant workers returning from Guangdong and Shanghai during this year's Spring Festival. I guess a lot more people are finding work near their hometowns and more people are now travelling by train, which is much faster than by boat," he said.
Asked about what he expects for the future of the Yangtze, Wu recalled a book written by a foreign missionary more than a century ago. At that time, the finless porpoise was often seen. Today it has all but vanished.
"I wish people would always put the environment before economic development, and the finless porpoise will come back and multiply," said Wu.
