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Home> China City Guide> Wuhan
Full travelling information of orientation, attractions, climate, history of Wuhan and more...
Introduction
Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, is an iron and steel city on the Yangtze. With a population of nearly four million, Wuhan is one of China's largest cities. It is actually a conglomeration of what were once three independent cities: Wuchang, on the south bank, Hanyang, and the former treaty port of Hankou on the north.
Wuchang was established during the Han Dynasty, became a regional capital under the Yuan and is now the seat of the provincial government. It used to be a walled city, but the walls have long since gone. Hankou, on the other hand, was barely more than a village until the Treaty of Nanjing opened it to foreign trade. There were five foreign concession areas in Hankou, all grouped around present-day Zhongshan Dadao. Later, with the Beijing-Wuhan railway in the 1920s, Hankou really began to expand and became a major industrial center in China.
Hanyang has been outstripped by neighboring Hankou and today is the smallest municipality. Its history can date back to 600 AD. During the second half of the 19th century it was developed for heavy industry. The plant for the manufacture of iron and steel which was built at Hanyang in 1891 was the first modern one in China. But the 1930s depression and the Japanese invasion totally ruined Hanyang's heavy industry and then the majority of the city switched to the light industry.
Wuhan lies on both sides of the Yangtze River. From Wuchang on the south-eastern bank, the city spreads across the Yangtze to the sectors of Hankou and Hanyang, the two separated by the Han River.
The city's south and north end were respectively linked by the Yangzi bridge and a new bridge. A shorter bridge spans the Han River to link Hanyang with Hankou.
The city's real center is Hankou, especially the area around Zhongshan Dadao. Most of Hankou's hotels, department stores, restaurants and street markets are within this sector, which is surrounded by quieter residential areas.
On the other side of the river, Wuchang is a modern district with long, wide avenues lined by drab concrete blocks. Many recreational areas and the Hubei Provincial Museum are on the Wuchang side of the river. The city's second railway station is in Wuchang.
Wuhan is now enjoying a boom in foreign and local investment that may help it catch up to the comparatively sparkling cosmopolitan citadels of Nanjing and Shanghai.
Wuhan tends to be seen merely as an embarkation or disembarkation point for the Yangtze River cruises, but the old city center, improved recently, has some attractions.
Standing on the top of Sheshan ( Snake Hill), it was originally built in the Three Kingdoms period ( 220-280) and is Known as a " consummate scene under heaven". In history the imposing tower was a gathering place for men of letters. Its name spread far and wide after Cui Hao, a poet of the Tang Dynasty ( 618-907), wrote a poem entitled " Yellow Grane Tower". Destroyed many times in successive dynasties, it was rebuilt time and again until 100 years ago when it was for the last time reduced to ashes. Today's Huanghe Tower, 51.4 meters high, is the result of four years of construction beginning in 1981. It is 90 meters from the water surface of the Yangtze River. It is five-storied with yellow tiles and red pillars, overlapping ridges and interlocking eaves. The five stories have a total of 60 upturned- eaves, and each story has five ridges by side. Standing lofty on the hill and overlooking the Yangtze River, the Tower looks resplendent and magnificent. From the top of the tower one can enjoy a spectacular view.
Situated at the western foot of the Guishan Hill ( Tortoise Hill) of Hanyang Town, it is recorded in the literature of the Song Dynasty ( 960-1279). It was built in memory of the friendship between Yu Boya, a master of Guqin( ancient lute) of the Chu State, and Zhong Zhiqi, a woodcutter, of the Spring and Autumn Period ( 770-475 BC).The main structure is a wide hall. A platform by the waterside in front of the hall is sand to be the place where Yu Boya played guqin. In the gallery are many exquisitely carved poem steles.
Guiyuan Buddhist Temple ( Temple of Original Purity)
Situated on Cuiwei Street of Hanyang Town, it was built in the Qing Dynasty ( 1644-1911). In the Arhat Hall of the temple are five hundred statues of the disciples Buddha sculpted by two artists between 1822 and 1831. Sitting, standing or reclining, in anger, sadness or delight, they stimulate people's imagination. It is a rare large religious statue group.A few years ago the statues were out in the open, and the incense smoke and sunshine filtering through the skylights gave the temple a rare magic. The incense is considered a fire hazard, so now visitors have to make do with unlit offerings.The ultras Cabinet contains Buddhist scriptures, ivory-and-jade-carved, bronze figurines and other precious cultural relics.
Wuchang and Hanyang are linked by this great bridge- it's more than 1100m long and 80m high. The completion of the bridge in 1957 marked one of Communist China's first great engineering achievements, because until then all road and rail traffic had to be laboriously ferried across the river. A second Trans-Yangtze bridge in northern Wuhan was completed in mid-1995.
Bronze Music Instruments of the Warring States Period
This museum mostly devoted to the finds excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi of the state of Zeng, who died in 433 BC,and important because it demonstrates the extraordinary richness of Chinese cultural life well before China became a single, unified state. The highlight is a set of 64 bronze bells on racks, supported by bronze soldiers.They date back to the Warring States Period ( 475-221 BC). All the pieces were cased of bronze with a total weight of five tons. They are suspended on three wooden frames of 13 meters long and 2.7 meters high. The most attracting fact is that having buried for more than 2,400 years, they can by used today to perform various kinds of music pieces and sometimes are used in concerts of ancient music. The instruments are rare and precious. The crawling dragon motif is repeated on many of the ritual lacquerware vessels that were also discovered in the tomb.
On the eastern edge of town is a large lake area, Dong Hu ( East Lake), situated in a huge park that has a number of other sights. There is a nice view across the entire lake and park area from Huguangge ( Sparkling Lake Pavilion). Despite the crowds of visitors, particularly in the hot summer months, it is a pleasantly cool place because of its enormous size.
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