( ) is
the capital of Hubei
province,
People's
Republic of China
, and is the most populous city in central
China. It lies at the east of Jianghan Plain, and
the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze
and Han River
. Arising out of the conglomeration of three
boroughs, Wuchang
, Hankou, and Hanyang, Wuhan is known as the
"thoroughfare of nine provinces"; it is a major transportation hub,
with dozens of railways, roads and expressways passing through the
city. The city of Wuhan, first termed as such in 1927, has a
population of approximately 9,100,000 people (2006), with about
6,100,000 residents in its
urban area. In
the 1920s, Wuhan was the capital of a leftist
Kuomintang (KMT) government led by
Wang Jingwei in opposition to
Chiang Kai-shek, now Wuhan is recognized as
the political, economic, financial, cultural, educational and
transportation center of
central
China.
Geography and climate
Wuhan is situated in the middle of Hubei Province, 113°41′-115°05′
East, 29°58′-31°22′ North, east of the Jianghan Plain, and the
confluence of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and Hanshui
River.
The
metropolitan area comprises 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). The consolidation of
these three cities occurred in 1927 and Wuhan was thereby
established. 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. Wuhan occupies a land area of 8494.41 km
2,
most of which is plain and decorated with hills and a great number
of lakes and pools.
Wuhan's climate is
humid
subtropical with abundant rainfall and four distinctive
seasons. Wuhan is known for its oppressively humid summers, when
dewpoints can often reach 26°C or more.
Because of its hot
summer weather, Wuhan is known as one of the Three Furnaces of China, along with Nanjing
and Chongqing
. Wuhan is by far the hottest of the Three
Furnaces; the average high temperature in July is 37.2°C (99°F),
and the maximum often exceeds 40°C (104°F). Spring and autumn are
generally mild, while winter is cool with occasional snow. In
recent thirty years, the average annual rainfall is 1269 mm,
mainly from June to August; annual temperature is 15.8℃-17.5℃,
annual frost free period lasts 211 to 272 days and annual sunlight
duration is 1810 to 2100 hours.
History
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 one of the most famous
battles in Chinese history and a
central event in the Romance of the Three
Kingdoms—the Battle of Red Cliffs
—took place in the vicinity of the cliffs near
Wuhan. Around that time, 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
(黄鹤楼) 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 rulers
(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.

Wuhan Custom House, opened in
1862
In the late 1800s railroads were extended on a north-south axis
through this city, which then became an important
transshipment 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 by U.S.
firebombing raids conducted by the
Fourteenth Air Force. In 1967, civil
strife struck the city in the
Wuhan
Incident as a result of tension brought by the
Cultural Revolution.
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
2011.
Significant Historical Events in Wuhan History
Opening Hankou as a Trading Port
During the Second Opium War (known in the West as the Arrow War,
1856-1860), the Government of Qing Dynasty was defeated by the
western powers and signed Treaties of Tianjin and Convention of
Peking, which stipulated eleven cities or regions including Hankou
as trading ports. In December 1858, James Bruce (the 8th Earl of
Elgin), the head of the Royal British Navy, led four warships up
the Yangtze River in Wuhan to collect the information needed for
opening the trading port in Wuhan. And in the spring of 1861,
Counselor Harry Parkes and Admiral Herbert were sent to Wuhan to
open a trading port. On the basis of Convention of Peking, Harry
Parkes concluded the Hankou Lend-Lease Treaty with Guan Wen, the
governor-general of Hunan and Hubei. It brought an area of 30.53
square kilometers along the Yangtze River (from Jianghan Road to
Hezuo Road today) to become British Concession and permitted
Britain to set up their consulate in the British Concession. Thus,
Hankou became an open trading port finally.
Hubei under Zhang Zhidong
In the
fifteenth year of Guangxu Period (1889) of the Qing Dynasty,
Zhang Zhidong was transferred from
Guangdong
to be the governor-general of Hunan
and Hubei
. By
1906, he had governed Hubei for 17 years. During this period, he
elucidated the theory of “Chinese learning as the basis, Western
learning for application,” known as the ti-yong ideal.
He set up many heavy
industries, founded Hanyang Steel Plant, Daye
Iron Mine,
Pingxiang Coal Mine and Hubei Arsenal and set up local textile
industries, boosting the flourishing modern industry in
Wuhan. Meanwhile, he initiated educational reform, opened
dozens of modern educational organizations successively, such as
Lianghu (Hunan and Hubei) Academy of Classical Learning, Civil
General Institute, Military General Institute, Foreign Languages
Institute and Lianghu (Hunan and Hubei) General Normal School, and
selected a great many students for study overseas, which well
promoted the development of China’s modern education. Furthermore,
he trained modern military and organized a modern army including a
zhen and a xie (both zhen and xie are military units in the Qing
Dynasty) in Hubei. All of these laid a solid foundation for the
modernization of Wuhan.
Wuchang Uprising
On October 10 of the third year of Xuantong Period of the Qing
Dynasty (1911), an armed uprising broke out in Wuchang. Before
uprising, with the purpose of overthrowing the Manchu Dynasty,
bourgeois revolutionaries conducted deep and wide propaganda and
mobilization and founded various revolutionary organizations in
Wuhan. In earlier September 1911, the Qing Government moved part of
the Hubei new army to Sichuan for suppressing the people’s uprising
there, which made a good chance for the uprising in Wuhan. On
September 14 Literature Society and gongjinhui, the two greatest
revolutionary organizations in Hubei, jointly founded the uprising
headquarters in Wuchang and decided to rise up. On the morning of
October 9 the bomb at the office of the political arrangement
exploded accidentally and unfortunately, and the uprising
proclamation, beadroll and official seal fell into the hands of Rui
Cheng, the governor-general of Hunan and Hubei, who demolished the
uprising headquarters in Wuchang the same day, and decided to raid
the revolutionaries according to the beadroll. At this critical
moment, the conductors from the basal backbones of revolutionary
organizations contacted each other secretly and made a decision of
immediate uprising. On the night of 10th, the revolutionaries fired
to rise in revolt at the engineering barracks of new army, and then
led on the new army of all barracks to rise up successively. Under
the guidance of Wu Zhaolin, Cai Jimin, etc., the revolutionary army
seized the official residence of the governor and government
offices including fan, nie, etc. in Hubei. Rui Cheng fled in panic
into the Chu-Yu Ship anchored by the river, and Zhang Biao, the
controller of Qing army, also discarded the city and fled away. On
the morning of 11th, the revolutionary army took the whole city of
Wuchang. But the leaders such as Jiang Yiwu, Sun Wu disappeared
then, thus the acephalous revolutionary army recommended Li
Yuanhong, the assistant governor of Qing army, as the
commander-in-chief, founded Hubei Military Government, proclaimed
the abolishment of the Qing Dynasty’s imperialism and the founding
of Republic of China, as well as published an open telegram for
call to uprising of every province. As the beginning of the
Revolution of 1911 (led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, which overthrew the
Qing Dynasty), Wuchang Uprising played a most important role in
raising upsurge of the democratic revolution, which also was called
“the lead in launching the Revolution of 1911” since 1911 was the
year of xinhai in traditional Chinese chronology.
National government moved its capital to Wuhan
In 1926, with the north extension of Northern Expedition, the
center of Great Revolution shifted from the Pearl River basin to
the Yangtze River basin. On November 26, the KMT Central Political
Committee decided to move the capital to Wuhan. In middle December,
most of the KMT central executive commissioners and National
Government commissioners arrived in Wuhan, set up the temporary
joint conference of central executive commissioners and National
Government commissioners, performed the top functions of central
party headquarters and National Government, and declared they would
work in Wuhan on January 1, 1927 and decided to combined the three
towns of Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang into Wuhan City, called
“Capital District”. The National Government was located in the
Nanyang Building in Hankou, while the central party headquarters
and other organizations chose their locations in Hankou or
Wuchang.
The Castaway Zhongshan warship in Jinkou
See also:
Battle of
Wuhan
In early October in 1938, Japanese aggressors moved east and north
respectively upon outskirts of Wuhan. As a result, the Party and
government institution, large quantities of companies and
enterprises and numerous people had to withdraw from Wuhan to the
west of Hubei and Sichuan. The KMT navy undertook the
responsibility of defending Yangtze River on patrol and covering
the withdrawal. On 24 October, when seeing over the waters of the
Yangtze River near Jinkou town (Jiangxia District in Wuhan) in
Wuchang, the famous navy warship of the KMT Zhongshan warship come
up against 6 Japanese planes. The planes took turns to dive to
strafe and bomb Zhongshan warship crazily. Though Captain Sha
Shijun led the whole officers and soldiers and shot down two
hostile planes, the Zhongshan warship eventually sank down due to
serious ravages with 25 officers and soldiers sacrificing their
valuable lives. Originally named Yongfeng warship, the Zhongshan
warship, 62.1 meters long and 8.9 meters wide, was a gunboat
ordered in Japanese Mitsubishi Shipyard by the Qing Government in
1910 with a tonnage of 836 tons and a speed of 13.5 sea miles/h. In
1913, Zhongshan warship with 138 seamen was incorporated in the
first armada of Chinese navy, which then took part under the
guidance of Cheng Biguang in the constitution defending movement
launched by Sun Yat-sen in July 1917. Moreover, Sun Yat-sen stayed
on Yongfeng warship for over 50 days in the command of putting down
the rebellion raised by Chen Jiongming in June 1922 personally. To
commemorate Sun Yat-sen, Yongfeng warship was renamed as Zhongshan
warship on 13 April in 1925, which was even utilized by Jiang
Jieshi to fabricate the 320 Event for excluding Communists in 1926.
In view of Zhongshan warship’s significant historical values, the
cultural relic department of Hubei province endeavored for years to
salvage it and finally succeeded in 1996, and built a Zhongshan
warship exhibition hall in Jinkou after it was repaired.
Completion and opening-to-traffic of the first Yangtze River
bridge
The project of building the First Yangtze River Bridge was regarded
as one of the key projects during the period of the first five-year
plan. The Engineering Bureau of the First Yangtze River Bridge, set
up by the Ministry of Railway in April 1953, was responsible for
the design and construction of the bridge. The document
“Resolutions on Building the First Yangtze River Bridge” was passed
in the 203rd conference of State Council on 15 January 1954. The
technical conference on the routes of the bridge, was held in
Hankou on 15 January 1955, determined that the route from Tortoise
Hill to Snake Hill was the best choice. On 25 October, the bridge
proper was under construction. The same day in 1957 the whole
project was completed and an opening-to-traffic ceremony was held
on 15 October. The whole bridge was 1670 m long, of which the
superstratum was a highway with a width of 22.5 m and the
substratum was a double-line railway with a width of 18 m. The
bridge proper was 1156 m long with two pairs of eight piers and
nine arches with a space of 128 m between each arch. Thanks to the
First Yangtze River Bridge, Beijing-Wuhan and Guangdong-Wuhan
railways were available and any place could be reached from
Wuchang, Hankou to Hanyang. Thus Wuhan was a thoroughfare to nine
provinces not only in reality but in name as well.
Administrative divisions
View slightly south of east from the Yellow Crane Tower
View westerly toward Tortoise Hill from the Yellow Crane
Tower
The sub-provincial city of Wuhan has direct jurisdiction over 13
districts (区
qu):
Along with 3 economic development districts:
- Wuhan
Economic and Technology Development District (武汉经济技术开发区)
- Donghu New Technology
District (东湖新技术开发区)
- Wujiashan
Taiwan Investment District (吴家山台商投资区)
Transportation
Bridges
Wuhan
Yangtze River Bridge
, also called the First Bridge, was built
over the Yangtze
River
(Chang Jiang) in 1957, carrying the railroad directly across the river between Snake
Hill (on the left in the picture below) and Turtle Hill.
Before this bridge was built it could take up to an entire day to
barge railcars across. Including its
approaches, it is 5,511 feet (1680 m) long, and it accommodates
both a double-track railway on a lower deck and a four lane roadway
above.
It
was built with the assistance of advisers from the Soviet Union
.
The
Second
Bridge
, a cable-stayed
bridge, built of pre-stressed concrete, has a central span of
400 meters; it is 4,678 meters in length (including 1,877 meters of
the main bridge) and 26.5 to 33.5 meters in width. Its main
bridgeheads are 90 meters high each, pulling 392 thick slanting
cables together in the shape of double fans, so that the central
span of the bridge is well poised on the piers and the bridge's
stability and vibration resistance are ensured. With six lanes on
the deck, the bridge is designed to handle 50,000 motor vehicles
passing every day.The bridge was completed in 1995.

First bridge, as seen from
Hanyang
The
Third
Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge
was completed in September 2000. Located 8.6
kilometers southwest of the First Bridge, construction of
Baishazhou Bridge started in 1997. With an investment of over 1.4
billion yuan (about 170 million U.S. dollars), the bridge, which is
3,586 meters long and 26.5 meters wide, has six lanes and has a
capacity of 50,000 vehicles a day. The bridge is expected to serve
as a major passage for the future Wuhan Ring Road, enormously
easing the city's traffic and aiding local economic
development.
Railway
The city
proper in Wuhan is served by two railway stations located in the
boroughs of Hankou and Wuchang
. As a result, the railway system in China
actually does not have a unique designation for the name "Wuhan",
and trains heading to Wuhan are marked with the respective
borough's station name, and not the city's. In 2006, construction
began on the new
Wuhan Railway
Station with 11 platforms.
Public transit
Wuhan Metro In September 2004, Wuhan became the
sixth Chinese city with a subway system (after Beijing, Tianjin
, Shanghai, Guangzhou
and Shenzhen
). The first 10.2 km line (10 stations)
is an elevated rail (and therefore called 'light rail' in Chinese
terminology). It runs from Huangpu to Zongguan in the downtown area
of the Hankou District, and it is the first one in the country to
use a communication-based train control system (a
Moving Block signalling
system, provided by
Alcatel). The
designed minimum interval is only 90 seconds between two trains and
it features driverless operation.
Air
Opened in
April 1995, Wuhan Tianhe International
Airport
is one of the busiest airports in central China and
it is located 26 km north of Wuhan. It has also been
selected as China's fourth international hub airport after Beijing
Capital International Airport
, Shanghai-Pudong and Guangzhou Baiyun. A
second terminal was completed in March 2008, having been started in
February 2005 with an investment of RMB3.372 billion.
Highway
Tourist sites
- Wuchang
has the
largest lake within a city in China, the East Lake, as well as the South Lake.
- The
Hubei
Provincial Museum
includes many artifacts excavated from ancient
tombs, including a concert bell set (bianzhong). A dance and orchestral
show is frequently performed here, using reproductions of the
original instruments.
- The Rock and Bonsai Museum includes a mounted platybelodon skeleton, many unique stones, a
quartz crystal the size of an automobile, and an outdoor garden
with miniature trees in the penjing
("Chinese Bonsai") style.

East lake
- Jiqing Street(吉庆街) holds many
roadside restaurants and street performers during the evening, and
is the site of a Live Show (生活秀) with stories of events on this
street by contemporary writer Chi Li.
- The Lute Platform in Hanyang was where the legendary musician Yu Boya is said to have played. According to the
story of 知音 (zhi yin, "understanding music"), Yu Boya
played for the last time over the grave of his friend Zhong Ziqi, then smashed his lute because the
only person able to appreciate his music was dead.

Ancient bronze concert bells at the
Hubei Provincial Museum
Economy
Wuhan is a
sub-provincial city.
Its GDP was RMB 396 billion and GDP per capita was approximately
RMB 44,000 (US$6,285) as of 2008. In 2008, the city's average
disposable income was 16,360
yuan.
Wuhan has
currently attracted about 50 French
companies,
over one third of French investment in China, the most among
Chinese cities.
Wuhan is an important functional center for economy, trade,
finance, transportation, information and technology, and education
in Central China. Its major sectors include modern manufacture
industry with optic-electronic information, automobile manufacture
as the key components, steel manufacturing, new pharmaceutical
sector, biology engineering, new material industry, environmental
protection. Wuhan Iron & Steel (Group) Co. and Dongfeng-Citroen
Automobile Co., Ltd settle in this city. Besides, there are in this
city 35 higher educational institutions including the well-known
Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science & Technology,
3 state-level development zones and many enterprise incubators. The
comprehensive strength of science and technology ranks the third in
China.
Industrial zones
Major industrial zones in Wuhan include:
- Wuhan East Lake High-Tech Development Zone
- Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone
Colleges and universities
Wuhan is the scientific and educational center in Central China,
with 35 higher educational institutions such as Wuhan University
and Huazhong University of Science and Technology, which cover all
the fields of science and technology and employ elites and
explorers in these fields. Wuhan has formed a comprehensive
scientific and educational strength ranking the 3rd in China with
its main force: three national development zones and four
scientific and technologic development parks as well as numerous
enterprise incubators, over 350 research institutes, 1470 hi-tech
enterprises, and over 400,000 experts and technicians.There are
eight national colleges and universities, and fourteen public
colleges and universities in Wuhan.
National
Public
Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not
listed.
Language
Wuhan natives speak a variety of Southwestern
Mandarin Chinese. Because it also has a
blend of southern Chinese elements, the Wuhan variety was once
promoted as the ideal basis for a
Standard Chinese dialect.
Popular foods
- Hot and Dry Noodles, Re-gan
mian (热干面) consists of long freshly boiled noodles mixed with
sesame paste. The Chinese word re means hot and
gan means dry. It is considered to be the most typical
local food for breakfast.
- Duck's Neck or Ya Bozi
(鸭脖子) is a local version of this popular Chinese dish, made of duck
necks and spices.
- Bean Pan or Doupi (豆皮)is a
popular local dish with a filling of egg, rice, beef, mushrooms and
beans cooked between two large round soybean skins and cut into
pieces, structurally like a stuffed pizza without enclosing
edges.
- Soup Bun or Tangbao(汤包)is a
kind of dumpling with thin skin made of flour, steamed with very
juicy meat inside, it is called Tang (soup) Bao (bun), because
every time one takes a bite from it the soup inside spills
out.
- Salty Doughnut or Mianwo
(面窝) is a kind of doughnut with salty taste. It's much thinner than
common doughnut, and is a typical Wuhan local food.
Famous people
Soccer
In 2005, Wuhan FC won CSL (China Super League) Cup, for the first
time since the Chinese professional football league was formed in
1994.
In May 2006 top Chinese soccer team Wuhan Huanghelou announced that they had
formed a lucrative deal with top English
team Bolton
Wanderers which would see both coaching and commercial methods
exchanged.
International relations
Twin towns — Sister cities
Wuhan is
twinned with:
- Adelaide
, Australia, since July
2007
- Arnhem
, Netherlands
, since June 1999
- Bordeaux
, France
, since June
18, 1998
- Borlänge
, Sweden
, since
September 2007
- Cheongju
, Republic of Korea
, since October 29, 2000
- Christchurch
, New
Zealand
, since April 4, 2006
- Duisburg
, Germany
, since October 8, 1982
- Galaţi
, Romania
, since August 12, 1987
- Győr
, Hungary
, since October 19, 1995
- Khartoum
, Sudan
, since
September 27, 1995
- Kiev
, Ukraine
, since October 19, 1990
- Manchester
, United
Kingdom
, since September 16, 1986
- Markham
, Canada
, since
September 12, 2006
- Ōita,
Japan
, since September 7, 1979
- Pittsburgh
, United States of America
, since September 8, 1982
- Porsgrunn
, Norway
, since
June 2004
- Sankt Pölten
, Austria
, since December 20, 2005
- St. Louis
, United
States of America
, since
September 2004
- Ashdod
, Israel
, since
October 2009
Diplomatic representation
The United States, France, have
consulate in Wuhan and South Korea
will open a consulate soon. The U.S. Consul General, the Honorable
Ms. Wendy P. Lyle, has been stationed in Wuhan since 30 November
2007. The office of the U.S. Consulate General, Central China
(located in Wuhan) celebrated its official opening on 20 November
2008 and is the first new American consulate in China in over 20
years.
Image gallery
Image:Wuhan City Square.jpg | Night lights at a major square in
Wuchang districtImage:Wuhan Construction.jpg | An area of Wuhan
during a construction boomImage:Wuhan City.jpgImage:TurtleHill
Base.jpg | View from the base of Turtle Hill with the Yellow Crane
tower seen in the distanceImage:Wuhan 2.jpgImage:Wuhan
4.jpgImage:Wuhan 5.jpgImage:Wuhan 6.jpgImage:Wuhan 8.jpgImage:Wuhan
13.jpg
See also
Notes
- http://www.cnhubei.com/200502/ca677743.htm
References
External links