At the much storied Donghu (East Lake) hotel where Chairman Mao spent most of his off-Beijing days after 1949, in the meeting hall that overlooks the iridescent lake and echoes the footsteps of past greats, a one-day workshop took place on August, 2013, which may well catapult the city of Wuhan to its aspired greatness as a National Central City. 

Led by Mr. Jonathan Fenton-Jones, a delegation of technical experts from IDI Gazeley, a leading international logistics infrastructure developer based in London, reported their findings and conceptual design of Wuhan International Eco-logistics Park (WIEP) to more than 100 of Wuhan’s political, business and academic leaders. Sprawling over 17 sq km of land, WIEP would be one of the largest logistics facilities in Asia. “Wuhan is a critical city in China from a logistics point of view; WIEP makes obvious sense economically,” said Mr. Fenton-Jones, Technical Director of Gazeley, “more than the size of economy, however, the quality of economy is becoming important in China, as it directly correlates with the quality of life. With WIEP, Gazeley brings all its experiences over 30 years in developing clean and sustainable logistics to China. We have shown today that clean industrial development is not only feasible, but also advantageous from a socioeconomic perspective.” On behalf of the Wuhan Government, Deputy Mayor Liyong LIU gave the closing speech of workshop. In it, Mayor LIU expressed full support to the idea of sustainable industrial design and development, and thanked Gazeley for its six months of hard work which resulted in a world-class master plan. “Wuhan has one thousand active construction sites today. Someone told me that this was more than the entire Europe. However, I do not take solace in mere numbers. Like Mr. Fenton-Jones, I want the pollution and perturbation from our development to be minimized. I want what we build will improve our quality of life, instead of detracting from it. Today I have learned much from our friends from Gazeley. Tomorrow I hope the knowledge we have accrued will empower the people of Wuhan to build a better and cleaner future.” 

As Gazeley’s partner in China, Creativersal International was responsible for the feasibility analysis of WIEP, which was also presented to the Government of Wuhan.