Transportation
Prior to the construction of China's national railway network, the Yangtze and Hanshui Rivers had been the main transportation arteries of Hubei for many centuries, and still continue to play an important transport role.
The railway from Beijing reached Wuhan in 1905, and was later extended to Guangzhou, becoming the first north-to-south railway mainline to cross China. A number of other lines crossed the province later on, including the Beijing-Kowloon line, which intersects the easternmost region of the province.
The first decade of the 21st century has seen a large number of new railway construction in Hubei. The Wuhan–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway, roughly parallel to the original Wuhan-Guangzhou line, opened in late 2009, and is currently being extended to the north, towards Beijing. A new east-west high-speed corridor connecting major cities along the Yangtze (the Huhanrong Passenger Dedicated Line) is being constructed as well: the Hefei-Wuhan section, which opened in 2009, has enabled fast service between Wuhan and Shanghai, while the Wuhan-Yuchang and Yichang-Wanzhou sections are (as of 2010) under construction.
Hubei's main airport is Wuhan Tianhe International Airport. Yichang Sanxia Airport serves the Three Gorges region. There are also passenger airports in Xiangfan, Enshi, and Jingzhou (Shashi Airport, named after the city's Shashi District).
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