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Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, and is the most populous city in central China. It lies at the confluence of the Yangtze and Han River. It has a population of approximately 9,100,000 people (2006). In the 1920s, Wuhan was the capital of a ... more »
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Hotels Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, and is the most populous city in central China. It lies at the confluence of the Yangtze and Han River. It has a population of approximately 9,100,000 people (2006). In the 1920s, Wuhan was the capital of a leftist Chinese Nationalist government led by Wang Jingwei in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek.
The metropolitan area consists of three parts - Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang, commonly called the "Three Towns of Wuhan" (hence the name "Wuhan", combining "Wu" from the first city and "Han" from the other two). These three parts face each other across the rivers and are linked by bridges, including one of the first modern bridges in China, known as the First Bridge. It is simple in geographical structure - low and flat in the middle and hilly in the south, with the Yangtze and Han rivers winding through the city.
Things to do * At Wuchang you can find East Lake, the largest lake within a city in China. * The Hubei Provincial Museum includes many artifacts excavated from ancient tombs, including a magnificent and unique concert bell set. A dance and orchestral show is given here, using reproductions of the original instruments. * The Rock and Bonsai Museum includes a magnificent mounted platybelodon skeleton, many unique and finely figured rocks, a giant quartz crystal (as large as an automobile) and an outdoor garden with miniature trees in the penjing ("Chinese Bonsai ") style. * Some luxury Riverboat tours begin here after a flight from Beijing or Shanghai, with several days of flatland cruising and then climbing through the Three Gorges with passage upstream past the Gezhouba and Three Gorges dams to the city of Chongqing. With the completion of the dam a number of cruises now start from the upstream side and continue east, with tourists traveling by motor coach from Wuhan. Although there is no longer the excitement of fast water cruising through the three gorges, and some of the historic wall carvings will soon be underwater, much of the drama of the high cliffs and narrow passages remains. * The Yellow Crane Tower (aka. Huanghelou), modern in structure, ancient in lore and legend. The original tower is presumed to have been first built in approximate 220 AD. The tower has been destroyed and reconstructed numerous times, was burned last in 1884. Complete reconstruction took place in 1981. The reconstruction utilized modern materials and even includes an elevator, yet in outward appearance and detail is true in spirit to the traditional design of the tower through the centuries.
* Jiqing Street, a street full of road side restaurants and street performers during the evening, well-known by Chinese due to a novel Live Show with stories of events on this street by Chi Li. It's a great place to know how locals live, eat, and to enjoy some local performance. Each song costs around 10 RMB, and you can order 3 songs with 20 RMB, provided you know those song names in Chinese. Performances include pop music, folk songs, rock'n'roll, stand-up comedy, and so on, mostly in Mandarin or local dialect.
The area was first settled more than 3,000 years ago. During the Han Dynasty, Hanyang became a fairly busy port. In the 3rd century AD, walls were built to protect Hanyang (AD 206) and Wuchang (AD 223). The latter event marks the foundation of Wuhan. In AD 223, the Yellow Crane Tower was constructed on the Wuchang side of the Yangtze River. Cui Hao, a celebrated poet of Tang Dynasty, visited the building in the early 8th Century; his poem made the building the most celebrated building in southern China. The city has long been renowned as a center for the arts (especially poetry) and for intellectual studies. Under the Mongol ruler (Yuan Dynasty), Wuchang was promoted to the status of provincial capital. By approximately 300 years ago, Hankou had become one of the country's top four trading towns.
In the late 1800s railroads were extended on a north-south axis through this city, which then became an important transhipment point between rail and river traffic. At this time foreign powers extracted mercantile concessions, with the riverfront of Hankou being divided up into various foreign controlled merchant districts. These districts contained trading firm offices, warehouses, and docking facilities.
In 1911, Sun Yat-sen's followers launched the Wuchang Uprising that led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China. Wuhan was the capital of a leftist Kuomintang government led by Wang Jingwei in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek during the 1920s.
In 1938, Wuhan and its proximities became the battlefield of the Battle of Wuhan, a major conflict in the Second Sino-Japanese War. After being taken by the Japanese in 1938, Wuhan became a major Japanese logistics center for operations in southern China. In December 1944, the city was largely destroyed in U.S. firebombing raids conducted by the 14th Army Air Force.
The city has been subject to numerous devastating floods, which are supposed to be controlled by the ambitious Three Gorges Dam. That project is set to be completed in 2009, but is plagued by environmental, technical, and social issues.
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*Because of its hot summer weather, Wuhan is known as one of the Four Furnaces of China, along with Nanjing, Nanchang and Chongqing. Wuhan is by far the hottest of the Four Furnaces; the average temperature in July is 37.2°C (99°F), and the maximum often exceeds 40°C (104°F).Lonely Planet Maps (external source)
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* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
