The province leads China in the production of rice, corn, and sweet potatoes. Other crops are wheat, rapeseed, sorghum, barley, soybeans, millet, hemp, sugarcane, citrus fruits, tung nuts, cotton, tobacco, and tea. Extensive forests of spruce, fir, and birch trees provide raw materials for a significant lumber industry. The production of brine salt is the chief mineral industry. Other minerals are coal, iron ore, phosphates, asbestos, petroleum, and natural gas.
Water transportation is vital to the province's economy.
The Yangtze River and its tributaries are navigable by large and small steamboats. Railways carry bulky products. Because of the physical terrain and frequent landslides, road construction is extremely difficult and expensive. The majority of the cities are located on riverbanks, where they are in danger of floods. The People's Liberation Army of China took over the province from Nationalist control in late 1949.