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Wuhan, China   Wuhan (Simplified Chinese: 武汉; Traditional Chinese: 武漢; pinyin: Wǔhàn) is the capital of Hubei province, and is the most populated city in central China. It lies at the confluence of the Yangtze and Han Rivers. It has a population of approximately 7,000,000 people.
GeographyThe 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. 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, 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 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.  The First Bridge at Wuhan 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 above) 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. The Yellow Crane Tower, which had been destroyed and reconstructed numerous times, was burned again in 1884. 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. The city has been subject to numerous devastating floods, hoped to be controlled by the ambitious Three Gorges Dam, recently completed and plagued by environmental, reliability and social issues. Tourist sites
EconomyWuhan is a sub-provincial city. The GDP per capita was RMB16,206 (ca. US$1,960) in 2003, ranked no. 114 among 659 Chinese cities. Colleges and universities[National]
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Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed. Popular foods
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