Jianli City is located in south-central Hubei Province, bordered by the Yangtze River to the south, the Dongjing River to the north, Bai Lu Lake to the west, and Honghu Lake to the east, facing Yueyang City in Hunan Province across the river.Elevated from a county to a city in June 2020, it serves as a sub-center of Jingzhou City. The city covers a total land area of 3,460 square kilometers and has a total population of 1.54 million. It administers 3 townships, 18 towns, 2 administrative districts, and 1 economic development zone.

In 2024, the city’s gross domestic product (GDP) reached 45.095 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.7% at constant prices.Of this total, the primary sector generated an added value of 15.551 billion yuan, representing a 2.9% increase on a comparable basis; the secondary sector generated 11.231 billion yuan, up 9.7% on a comparable basis; and the tertiary sector generated 18.314 billion yuan, up 5.3% on a comparable basis. The ratio of the three sectors was 34.5:24.9:40.6.

In 2024, the city’s registered population stood at 1.5081 million, a decrease of 17,700 from the previous year. The city’s permanent resident population was 1.0293 million, comprising 487,000 urban residents and 542,300 rural residents. The urbanization rate was 47.31%.

In 2024, the city had 90,449 market entities, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%. Among them, there were 13,555 enterprises, a year-on-year increase of 30.3%. The number of newly established market entities reached 17,140, a year-on-year increase of 39.2%.

Jianli is the birthplace of the Chinese Revolution. Since its establishment as a county in 222 AD by the State of Wu to “supervise the collection of profits from fish and rice,” it has a history spanning 1,800 years. The patriotic poet Qu Yuan composed the “Li Sao” here; the two sages Wu Zixu and Shen Baoxu are renowned far and wide; and the two historic and cultural towns of Zhoulaozi and Chengji are celebrated nationwide.Jianli is a land steeped in revolutionary history, embodying the passion of the revolution and boasting a glorious revolutionary tradition. During the Land Revolution, the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the War of Liberation, it served successively as a base area for the Red Army, the New Fourth Army, and the People’s Liberation Army.Jianli was the center of the Western Hunan-Hubei Revolutionary Base Area. The first Party cell was established in Huanggongyan; the first shot of the armed struggle in the Honghu Soviet Area was fired at Jinkou on the Bian River; the Sixth Army of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army was born in Wangqiao, Jianli; and the Western Hunan-Hubei Provincial Soviet Government was established in Zhoulaozi, Jianli. Revolutionary martyrs such as He Long, Zhou Yiqun, Liu Zhixun,Duan Dechang, and other revolutionary martyrs fought valiantly here. The city preserves 323 historic sites from the Western Hunan-Hubei Revolutionary Base Area and is home to two provincial-level martyrs’ cemeteries: the Liu Zhixun Martyrs’ Cemetery and the Jinkou Martyrs’ Cemetery. As many as 54,800 heroes from Jianli sacrificed their lives for the revolution, and nearly 150,000 heroic sons and daughters rest here, their blood having dyed the Party flag red.

Jianli is the birthplace of rural reform. Following the launch of reform and opening-up, Jianli pioneered the exploration of rural tax and fee reforms, becoming the first in the country to abolish the agricultural tax and ending the history of farmers paying “imperial grain taxes” that had lasted for over two millennia.Jianli is a major national grain-producing region, with annual grain output consistently stable at around 1.3 million tons. It ranks first in the country for rice production and serves as Hubei Province’s base for the deep processing of grain products. For many consecutive years, it has been awarded the title of “National Model County for Grain Production,” making significant contributions to ensuring national food security. Jianli is also the birthplace of the national policy for the protection of basic farmland, boasting 2.78 million mu of arable land.In recent years, Jianli has leveraged its ecological advantages to develop the “rice-shrimp co-cultivation” model, becoming the nation’s leading county in crayfish production, with its crayfish output ranking first nationwide for 12 consecutive years.Jianli is also one of the first pilot counties for reform and development within the National Modern Agriculture Demonstration Zones. It is a National Model County for Safe Fisheries, a National Specialty County for Yellow Eels, a major county for live hog exports and distribution, a national-level major county for cotton seed production, and a county-wide implementation site for agricultural product origin cold storage and preservation. It is home to Xingou and Zhuhe, two towns ranked among the top 1,000 in comprehensive strength nationwide.Wangshi Town, known as the “Hometown of Glass and Aluminum,” and Maoshi Town, known as the “Hometown of Chinese Pastry Chefs.” In 2021, it was successfully selected for the first batch of National Agricultural Modernization Demonstration Zones, possessing a strong industrial foundation to build a demonstration zone for the Rural Revitalization Strategy. In 2023, it became the only county in the province designated as a pilot for the national “Green Agricultural Inputs” Upgrade Initiative.

Jianli serves as a strategic bridgehead for industrial relocation. It lies at the intersection of the national Yangtze River Economic Belt development strategy and the Central Region Rise strategy, and within the overlapping influence zones of the Wuhan Metropolitan Area and the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan Urban Cluster. The Suiyue Expressway runs north-south through the county, while the Jiangbei Expressway and Wujian Expressway span east-west. Rongcheng New Port has an annual throughput capacity of 2.9 million tons.The Xianyang-Honghu-Jianli Railway and the Jianli-Huarong Expressway, along with the combined road-rail bridge project, are set to commence construction, ensuring a well-connected and highly convenient transportation network. The project of Nine Dragons Paper (Hubei), a national leader in the paper industry, has officially commenced operations; Hubei Yihuan Tian Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. contributed 350 million yuan in taxes in 2023; and brands such as “Jianli Glass and Aluminum Craftsmen” and “Jianli Pastry Chefs” have been recognized as national labor service brands.The Jianli Economic Development Zone has completed its expansion and restructuring, and its Pharmaceutical and Chemical Industry Park has been approved as one of the province’s first qualified industrial parks. Centered around industrial clusters, specialized “parks within parks” have been established for sectors such as eco-aluminum, optoelectronics technology, home furnishings and building materials, biomedicine, and textiles and apparel. The industrial chain is well-developed, industrial support facilities are comprehensive, and daily living services are readily available.

Jianli is a city brimming with warmth and compassion. It carries forward and promotes the great spirit of the Soviet areas, nourishing the soul, refining character, lifting spirits, and inspiring resolve. As the main battleground of the “1998 Flood Control Campaign,” the general public and the People’s Liberation Army fully demonstrated a fearless revolutionary spirit, giving birth to the great spirit of flood control.During the “Eastern Star” incident, the people of Jianli demonstrated exemplary conduct through their sense of responsibility and acts of kindness, embodying genuine human compassion and writing a story of great love in a small town, earning nationwide acclaim. In the 2020 battles against the pandemic, floods, and poverty, the vast majority of Party members, officials, and the public in Jianli once again upheld the spirit of the Soviet Area, uniting as one and daring to take on responsibilities, achieving the fruitful results of three victories in three battles.In 2021, the ordinary hero Wang Jing wrote a heroic ode to righteousness, courage, and love with her life at the age of 32;Since 2022, three “China Good Samaritans” have emerged: Yusupjiang Abibula saved three drowning victims in two days, while Dai Shuiwen and Ye Sixiong jointly built a “ladder of life” to rescue people trapped in a fire, demonstrating the enduring legacy of the “Great Love in a Small Town” spirit.In recent years, Jianli has successfully been designated as a National Garden County, a Provincial Civilized City, a Provincial Sanitary City, a Provincial Garden City, a Provincial Forest City, and a Provincial Ecological Civilization Construction City. It has been included in the first batch of the National Demonstration List for New-Type Urbanization in County-Level Cities and the National Pilot Program for Youth-Oriented County-Level Development, fostering an unprecedentedly cohesive atmosphere of unity, harmony, and determination in our work.

Currently, guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we are accelerating the development of a National Agricultural Modernization Demonstration Zone and the Jingzhou Sub-center. We are committed to making new and greater contributions to Hubei’s role as a key strategic fulcrum for the rise of Central China and to Jingzhou’s development as a demonstration zone for high-quality development on the Jianghan Plain.