Wuhan in 3 days

Hubei Provincial Museum (湖北省博物馆 — the most important museum in central China; on the East Lake shore in Wuchang; the museum holds the most significant collection of Chu culture artefacts in the world): the bianzhong (the 编钟 — the bronze bell chime set from the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng (曾侯乙墓, the tomb excavated in 1978 in Suizhou, Hubei, dated to 433 BCE — the early Warring States period (475-221 BCE)): the bell set (65 bronze bells of varying sizes (the largest bell weighing 203.6 kg, the smallest 2.4 kg) suspended on a three-tiered wooden frame measuring 7.48 m × 3.35 m; the total weight of all 65 bells: 2,567 kg; the most complete ancient Chinese musical instrument set in the world — the only complete bianzhong ensemble of this period surviving); the musical properties (each of the 65 bells produces two distinct musical tones (one when struck at the centre of the bell face and one when struck at the edge — the unique "two-tone bell" property of the Chinese ritual bronze bell discovered when the Marquis Yi bianzhong was first played in 1978); the complete scale (the 65 bells cover a range of 5 octaves (the C2 to D7 range) and can produce all 12 semitones of the chromatic scale — a musical system theoretically equivalent to Western equal temperament, discovered 2,000 years before the Western development of the equal temperament scale in the 17th century); the daily performance (the museum offers a 30-minute live bianzhong concert performance at 10:30 AM and 3:00 PM daily — the musicians play the 2,400-year-old bells using replica mallets; the most unusual live musical experience in any Chinese museum).

Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge (武汉长江大桥 — the "First Bridge over the Yangtze" (第一桥 / Diyiqiao); connecting the Snake Hill (Wuchang) to the Turtle Hill (Hanyang) across the Yangtze River; completed September 25, 1957): the historical significance (the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge was the first permanent bridge across the Yangtze River in China's history (before 1957, all Yangtze crossings were by ferry — the Yangtze was the most significant physical barrier dividing China north-south for 3,000 years of Chinese history); the bridge was designed by Soviet engineers (the bridge was a major project of the Sino-Soviet cooperation period of the 1950s — the Soviet Union contributed 13 Soviet bridge engineers and the construction technology; the bridge was completed in 3 years and 1 month (planned: 4 years) — the speed of completion was celebrated in Chinese official culture as a demonstration of Soviet-Chinese socialist solidarity)); the bridge structure (the combined road-rail bridge (dual purpose: the upper deck carries the Beijing-Guangzhou railway (the most important north-south rail line in China), the lower deck carries the road traffic and the pedestrian walkway); the bridge length: 1,670 m (the main spans: 9 × 128 m arch spans above the river); the height above the highest flood water level: 18 m; the pedestrian walkway (the lower deck pedestrian walkway on both sides — the walk across the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge (20-30 min one-way) is the most iconic riverside walk in the city: the view of the Yangtze River (the river width at Wuhan: 1.2 km at low water, expanding to 2+ km during the annual summer flood (the Yangtze flood season: June-September)), the Yellow Crane Tower visible on the Snake Hill (Wuchang side).

Han Street (楚河汉街 — Chuhe Hanjie: the "Chu River and Han Street" — the 1.5 km commercial and entertainment boulevard in the Wuhan Cultural Tourism Zone, 3 km east of the Yellow Crane Tower; the most intensively developed commercial leisure precinct in Wuhan): the history (Han Street opened in September 2012 as the centrepiece of a major Wuhan government urban development project: the "Wuhan Cultural Tourism Zone" (武汉文化旅游区) — the redevelopment of the former industrial and residential area around the Sha Hu (Sand Lake) into a mixed-use leisure, retail and cultural district; the design concept: the Venetian Canal city aesthetic (the canals flanking the central pedestrian boulevard were designed to evoke the European canal city character in a Chinese context — hence the "楚河" (Chu River) canal that parallels the Han Street boulevard); the architecture (the 1920s-1940s Shanghai Art Deco / Republican-era architectural style (the neoclassical and Art Deco facades, the colonnaded ground floors, the brick and stone construction) replicated in the new 2012 construction — the "retro-Republican" aesthetic that is the most widely used commercial development style in China's city centre redevelopment (the Tianzifang in Shanghai, the Xintiandi in Shanghai, the 1912 area in Nanjing use similar approaches)); the cultural institutions (the Han Show Theatre (the Han Xiu Tiandi) — the custom-designed arena theatre by Mark Fisher (the theatrical designer of the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and U2 stadium shows) for the Wuhan Han Show aquatic performance (a permanent large-scale water and acrobatics show); the Wanda Film Park adjacent to Han Street.

Wuhan evening food culture (the most distinctive regional food culture in central China): the duck neck (鸭脖 — ya bo: the Wuhan-origin food that has spread to every city in China: the spiced braised duck neck (the entire neck of the duck including the bone and the cartilage, braised in the master stock of soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine, star anise, Sichuan pepper, dried chilli and dozens of other spices for 3-4 hours; the meat clings to the cartilage and small bones and must be gnawed off — the eating style (eating duck neck is inherently social and slow, requiring hands and patience) makes it the most popular accompaniment to beer in Wuhan bars and restaurants; the most famous brand: Zhou Hei Ya (周黑鸭 — the Wuhan duck neck brand founded in 1995, now a publicly listed company with 2,000+ shops across China); the crayfish (小龙虾 — xiao long xia: the red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii — the American crayfish species introduced to China (Jiangsu Province) by a Japanese aquaculture company in the 1930s as a food source, now the most widely consumed freshwater crustacean in China): the Wuhan crayfish culture (the summer crayfish season: June-August is the peak season in Wuhan; the crayfish stalls and restaurants along the Jiangtan waterfront (the Yangtze River park beside the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge) operate as the most atmospheric open-air evening dining experience in Wuhan during the summer — thousands of Wuhan residents sit at outdoor tables eating crayfish, drinking beer and watching the Yangtze River traffic; the preparation styles: the 13 spices braised crayfish (the most popular), the garlic butter crayfish, the spicy mala (麻辣) crayfish).

Hankou former colonial concession district (the most concentrated collection of European colonial architecture in central China — on the north bank of the Yangtze River in Hankou district): the history (Wuhan (specifically the Hankou district on the north bank of the Yangtze River) was one of the most important treaty port cities in China: the Treaty of Tientsin (1858) and the Convention of Peking (1860) opened Hankou to foreign trade; by 1900 Hankou had 5 separate foreign concessions (British, French, German, Russian and Japanese) covering approximately 3 km of the Yangtze riverfront; the foreign concession era (1858-1943) produced the most varied collection of European colonial architecture in inland China: the British Bund (the Hankou Bund — the waterfront street lined with the neo-classical and Edwardian buildings of the British banks and trading companies), the French Concession (the French-style boulevard buildings), the Russian Tea Trade (the Russian concession buildings constructed for the Hankou-Vladivostok tea trade (the most important commodity trade of the Hankou port in the late 19th century — Hankou was the centre of the Chinese black tea export to Russia, shipped via the Yangtze River to Shanghai and then overland via the Trans-Siberian route to Moscow and St. Petersburg)); the current buildings (the Zhongshan Avenue (中山大道) and the Yanjiang Avenue (沿江大道) — the two main streets of the former concession area — retain the largest collection of colonial-era buildings: the former HSBC Building (1917), the former Chartered Bank of India, the former Citibank Building (1920s), the former Customs House (1924) and dozens of residential and commercial buildings from the 1900-1940 period).

Guiyuan Buddhist Temple (归元禅寺 — Guiyuan Chansi; the "Garden of Complete Return" Chan (Zen) Buddhist temple in the Hanyang district; founded 1658 in the early Qing dynasty (1644-1912)): the history (the Guiyuan Temple was founded by the Chan Buddhist master Bai Guang and Zhu Feng in 1658 (the 15th year of the Shunzhi Emperor's reign — the early Qing period); the temple complex (the current complex of 10 buildings on 46,000 m² is the result of multiple expansion phases (1658, the 1740s expansion, the 1842 repairs after the First Opium War, the 1850s damage during the Taiping Rebellion (the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom forces briefly controlled Wuhan in 1853), the post-Wuchang Uprising (1912) restoration, the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) damage and the post-Cultural Revolution restoration (1979-present))); the 500 Luohan Hall (the defining feature of the Guiyuan Temple: the hall containing 500 individually characterised clay Luohan (羅漢 — Arhat) statues: the Luohan are the enlightened disciples of the Buddha who have achieved Nirvana but chosen to remain in the world to assist other beings toward enlightenment; the 500 Luohan set (the standard Luohan collection of Chinese Buddhism — the 18 principal Luohan plus 482 additional figures) of the Guiyuan Temple is considered one of the finest in China for the quality of individual characterisation (each face is unique and individually carved to represent a specific personality type: the laughing Luohan, the contemplative Luohan, the sleeping Luohan, the Luohan with the elongated earlobes); the Guiyuan Temple tradition (the tradition of counting the Luohan statues until finding one that looks like you — the number of that Luohan predicts your fortune for the year).

Jiangtan Riverside Park (江滩公园 — the Wuhan Yangtze River Jiangtan Park; the 5 km linear park along the north (Hankou) bank of the Yangtze River from the Jiefang Bridge (the Liberation Bridge) to the Yangtze River Bridge): the park (the Jiangtan Park (Jiangtan = "river beach") was developed between 2002 and 2019 as the primary public waterfront space of Wuhan: the reclaimed and landscaped riverbank area includes 5 separate park sections (the Hankou Jiangtan (the original 1 km section), the Qingchuan Jiangtan (the 2 km section downstream in Hanyang), the Wuchang Jiangtan (the east bank section) and the Hanyang and Zhongji sections); the experience (the Yangtze River at Wuhan: the river width at the Jiangtan park location: 1.2-1.5 km (low water season, November-May); the summer Yangtze flood (the Yangtze at Wuhan regularly reaches 25-29 m above the low-water level during the July-August flood season; the 1998 Yangtze flood (the most catastrophic in modern Chinese history) reached 29.43 m at the Wuhan gauge station, overflowing the Jiangtan park and threatening the Wuhan city flood walls; the park is built on the flood-control embankment (the concrete flood wall that separates the city from the river))); the river traffic (the Yangtze River cargo traffic at Wuhan is among the heaviest inland waterway traffic in the world: the 50,000+ cargo vessels per year passing Wuhan (the river is navigable to 10,000-tonne vessels as far as Yichang, 380 km upstream); the most visible vessels: the bulk carriers transporting iron ore and coal downstream to the Shanghai steelworks, the container ships, the passenger cruise boats for the Three Gorges tourist itinerary (Wuhan to Yichang to Chongqing — the most popular river cruise in China).

Wuhan evening culture (the most atmospheric evening experience in the city of the Yangtze River confluence): the Yangtze River night panorama (the Wuhan night skyline from the Jiangtan waterfront: the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge (1957) illuminated in red and gold; the Wuhan Yangtze River Second Bridge (1995) and the Yangtze River Third Bridge (2000) visible downstream; the Yellow Crane Tower lit yellow on the Snake Hill; the Baishazhou Bridge (2000) visible upstream; the Hankou Bund buildings illuminated on the north bank — the Wuhan night skyline is the most cinematically elaborate in central China); the Er Dao Bridge night market (the most famous night market in Wuhan — in the Jiangan district behind the former concession area: the street food stalls (the duck neck (周黑鸭), the stinky tofu (臭豆腐), the fried skewers (关东煮), the steamed rice packets (粽子)), the night market atmosphere); the Wuhan hot pot (the Hubei-style hot pot: the "dry" hot pot (干锅 — gan guo: the meat and vegetables cooked in a clay pot with the dried chilli, the Sichuan pepper, the black cardamom, the fermented black bean sauce; no broth — the ingredients cook in the spiced oil; the most intensely flavoured hot pot tradition in the Yangtze River valley): the crayfish hot pot (the Wuhan summer special: the red swamp crayfish in the gan guo style with the 13-spice dry rub); the lotus root hot pot (the lotus root — the aquatic plant of the Hubei lakes (the Yangtze Lake District of Hubei is the most lotus-root growing region in China) — sliced and braised in the Hubei hot pot style).