Produced by | Huabo Business Review

To get rich, first build roads; to get richer, still need to build roads first.

On September 6, the Hangzhou-Wenzhou Railway opened. Many believe that the Hangzhou-Wenzhou Railway can help Wenzhou bid for the trillion-yuan city club and further boost the economic development of Zhejiang as a whole.

01 Boosting Wenzhou's Bid for the Trillion-Yuan Club

Why do people say so?

Official data shows that Wenzhou's GDP reached 873 billion yuan last year, with a growth rate of 6.9%, ranking 30th among China's top 100 cities in terms of GDP, just a step away from joining the trillion-yuan club.

However, in recent years, Wenzhou's economic growth has slowed down at times.

In 2015 and 2018, Hangzhou and Ningbo successively joined the GDP 'trillion-yuan club,' leading the province. By 2023, Hangzhou's GDP exceeded 2 trillion yuan, while Ningbo's totaled 1,645.82 billion yuan. In comparison, although Wenzhou remains a stable third in the province's economy, its GDP is roughly half that of Ningbo and only maintains an advantage of about 90 billion yuan over Shaoxing, which ranks fourth.

Geographical location is considered one of the main factors constraining Wenzhou's development.

As a city located in the southeast corner of the Yangtze River Delta, Wenzhou has long been on the 'periphery' of regional development, far from core cities like Hangzhou and Shanghai, resulting in disadvantages in resource sharing and regional collaboration. Although Wenzhou has been included as one of the 27 central cities in the Yangtze River Delta in recent years, inconvenient transportation remains a major obstacle to its integration into the Yangtze River Delta integration development.

In fact, Wenzhou has had access to high-speed rail for some time. Before the opening of the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail, the fastest train, G7629, departed from Hangzhou East Station at 9:12 pm, stopping only at Lishui Station, and arrived at Wenzhou South Station at 11:05 pm, taking 113 minutes.

With the opening of the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail, the situation has changed. The railway has shortened the time for Wenzhou residents to travel north for business and for Hangzhou residents to travel south for tourism, bringing Wenzhou closer in time and space to the provincial capital and other major cities in the Yangtze River Delta.

The Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail has a total length of 267 kilometers and a design speed of 350 kilometers per hour, with nine stations including Tonglu East, Pujiang, and Yiwu. It not only ends the history of no high-speed rail access in Pujiang, Dongyang, Pan'an, and Xianju but also reduces the travel time between Wenzhou and Hangzhou to around one hour.

Zhejiang Economic Radio believes that with the boost of the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail, Wenzhou is likely to become China's 27th trillion-yuan city by 2025. Statistics show that Wenzhou's GDP totaled 429.78 billion yuan in the first half of 2024, an increase of 27.19 billion yuan or 6.8% over the same period last year in nominal terms.

02 Zhejiang Province is Becoming a 'City'

Moreover, upon the completion of the comprehensive upgrade of Yiwu Station in 2026, the transportation capacity of the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail will experience a qualitative leap. By then, it will not only seamlessly connect with Hangzhou West Station but also rely on Yiwu Station as a transportation hub to seamlessly transfer to the Shanghai-Kunming High-Speed Rail network, directly connecting to Hangzhou South Station and Hangzhou East Station, establishing a free transfer system between Wenzhou in the south and Hangzhou in the east and west, truly realizing the integration of Hangzhou and Wenzhou.

Qianjiang Evening News believes that one hour is the limit for a single commute, and the definition of a metropolitan area is also based on a one-hour boundary. With the opening of the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail, most prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang will enter Hangzhou's 'one-hour commute circle,' turning Zhejiang Province into 'Zhejiang City.'

Qin Shili, deputy director of the Institute of Regional Development at the Zhejiang Development Planning Research Institute, profoundly pointed out that the one-hour accessibility provided by the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail is a powerful catalyst for regional integration and economic development. It not only significantly reduces the time cost for residents' travel, commuting, and business activities but also provides strong support for the deep economic and social integration of the three major metropolitan areas of Hangzhou, Jinyi, and Wenzhou. This major north-south high-speed rail artery in Zhejiang not only strengthens the city's Same city effect but also promotes the free flow and optimal allocation of key elements such as resources, talents, and information in a broader region, injecting new vitality into the coordinated development of the regional economy.

Moreover, the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail serves as a link connecting multiple economic hubs in Zhejiang, greatly facilitating intercity exchanges and cooperation. For industries with distinctive characteristics in cities like Wenzhou, such as footwear and electrical appliances, as well as strategic emerging industries like new energy and life sciences, the opening of the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail undoubtedly opens a new window for cooperation with core cities within the province and important cities in the Yangtze River Delta. These industries can leverage the convenience of high-speed rail to strengthen cooperation with stronger players, realizing the strengthening and complementation of industrial chains. They can also rely on the radiation effect of high-speed rail to form complementary advantages with related industrial cities, jointly promoting the extension of industrial chains and achieving win-win development.

Wu Di, an Indian foreign trader engaged in foreign trade with South America in Yiwu, was pleasantly surprised after his first experience on the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail on September 8. Even as the train sped along at high speed, the water cup on the table remained as stable as a rock, without the slightest wobble. This efficient and comfortable travel experience left him full of praise for the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail. 'I can get from Yiwu to Wenzhou in an hour, saving a lot of time for meeting clients and inspecting products. I'll definitely be a frequent traveler on the Hangzhou-Wenzhou High-Speed Rail in the future,' he said.