Every morning, the special optical fiber laboratory of FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies in Wuhan begins its daily bustle. At the workstation, an engineer picks up a hollow-core optical fiber with a diameter of just 0.4 millimeters — a fiber almost invisible to the naked eye. But when a microscope magnifies it thousands of times, a scene that overturns conventional understanding comes into view: the interior of this thin strand is actually hollow, and on the wall of this hollow tube, 20 even finer glass cylindrical structures are exquisitely embedded, creating a "maglev" high-speed track for light. This is the key to next-generation optical communications — hollow-core fiber, which concentrates light to race smoothly through the center of a near-vacuum channel, dramatically boosting transmission speed.
Optics Valley has become a global innovation highland
From a single beam of light to a sky full of stars, today Optics Valley, Vehicle Valley, Star Valley, Cyber Valley, and Medicine Valley are all racing toward the same goal in their own ways: abundant harvest. Optics Valley is the main engine of Wuhan's innovation rise. In May this year, Yangtze Memory Technologies launched its listing process, and Changjin Photonics debuted on the STAR Market, bringing the number of listed companies in Optics Valley to 72, accounting for about one-third of Hubei Province and shouldering the heavy responsibility of high-quality development across the Jingchu region.
Vehicle Valley accelerates the transformation of the automotive industry
In the sky of Star Valley, the "Kuaizhou" rocket has completed flight after flight, with the scale of satellites placed in orbit ranking among the top of solid rockets of the same type worldwide. Within the 68.8-square-kilometer industrial base, the four major segments of "satellites, rockets, cloud, and materials" are fully in place, with an annual production capacity of 240 small satellites and 50 rockets. The chain-based industrial ecosystem of "Star Valley" is accelerating its formation. Star Valley is an important pole in China's commercial aerospace landscape.
Cyber Valley carries the new industrial foundation of cybersecurity and the digital economy
It carries the new industrial foundation of cybersecurity and the digital economy, driving deep integration of the digital-intelligent economy and the security industry. Cyber Valley is China's first national-level cybersecurity industry cluster zone. Walking into the exhibition hall of Wuhan Healthgen Biotechnology, a technician picks up a bottle of transparent injection: "This is the world's first plant-derived recombinant human serum albumin that replaces plasma extraction." From a single rice plant to a bottle of medicine, Healthgen walked this path for twenty years. Last July, Osfortune received approval from the National Medical Products Administration for market launch, becoming the world's first Class 1 innovative drug for "rice-based blood production." Medicine Valley is building a leading-scale life and health industry cluster.
The lasers and chips of Optics Valley enter the smart cars of Vehicle Valley, giving them the ability to "perceive" and "decide"; the security solutions of Cyber Valley build defenses for Vehicle Valley's massive data links; the remote sensing data of Star Valley is transmitted back to the computing center of Optics Valley, feeding back into urban governance. The boundaries among the "Five Valleys" are blurring, replaced by a densely woven network of integrated innovation.
At present, Wuhan has established a "chain chief" system for the "Five Valleys" advantageous industrial clusters, striving to have the Optics Valley advantageous industrial cluster exceed 900 billion yuan by 2026, the Vehicle Valley advantageous industrial cluster reach 450 billion yuan, the Cyber Valley advantageous industrial cluster exceed 30 billion yuan, the Star Valley advantageous industrial cluster reach 40 billion yuan, and the Medicine Valley advantageous industrial cluster reach 720 billion yuan.
"Valley" means the clustered development of a city's high-end industries. Today, Optics Valley is building a global science and innovation benchmark, Vehicle Valley is reshaping the advantages of the automotive industry, Star Valley is opening up new frontiers in the space economy, Cyber Valley is fortifying the digital security barrier, and Medicine Valley is empowering the upgrading of life and health. The "Five Valleys" working in concert are pulling Wuhan's growth trajectory toward a broader picture and higher coordinates.
Wuhan's "abundant harvest of the Five Valleys" is a sample of central Chinese cities exploring new quality productive forces, and also a central strategic fulcrum in the national layout for technological self-reliance and self-strengthening. In the first half of this year, Wuhan's GDP reached 1.12 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of 5.7 percent, showing strong development momentum. An abundant harvest of the Five Valleys enriches industry and elevates technology. With the "Five Valleys" as the chessboard and innovation as the engine, Wuhan is accelerating its construction into an important strategic fulcrum for the rise of the central region — this is the responsibility of a great city.