A new shipping route was on Wednesday opened between the Yangluo port in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and the port city of Busan in the Republic of Korea (ROK).

The new route is the first direct regular shipping route between central China and the ROK, and is the extension of an existing route linking Wuhan with Japanese ports. It is expected to help promote trade between China and the ROK, and further cement Wuhan's role as a shipping hub in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

A return trip on the new route will be more than three days shorter than the previous route via Shanghai, said Zhang Lin, director of the Wuhan New Port Management Committee, which manages the Yangluo port.

The Yangluo port launched its first shipping route to Japanese ports in 2019.