Yichang City is located at the west of China's Hubei Province, where the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River are divided. Yichang has been defined as a distributing center, an important trading port and a transportation hub along the Yangtze river linking west Hubei and east Sichuan since ancient times. For a very long time, it has been renown as "Gateway to the Three Gorges". Today, as well as a cultural and tourist city in China, Yichang remains a brisk river port of China, controlling the access to Chongqing City to its southwest.