Wuhan Travel Guide

Hubei Provincial Museum

It was a fantastic place that is still relatively unknown to foreign tourists. The museum display includes a 2000 year old coffin, which is still in good condition. All the items in display were unearthed from one king's tomb dating back to Spring and Autumn Periods more than 2000 years ago. The ancient Chu music performance is the highlight. Chu, an ancient, strong kingdom ruling over today's Wuhan area was famous for its music. Many of China's classic pieces have been evolved from the ancient Chu music.

There are other artifacts from all over Hubei Province, so it is a good place to learn about Chinese history. Reproductions of bronze bells that were used as musical instruments are played. The Chu Kingdom was famous for the quality of the music, and the area of Wuhan and Hubei was a part of it.

Guiyuan Temple

As one of the four biggest Buddhist temples in Hubei Province, the Guiyuan Temple is very famous in wuhan. It was originally built by a monk named Bai Guang in 1658. It was named upon the Buddhist hymn: "Return to original purity without other resort, there would be many ways if it is at discretion."

The Guiyuan Temple covers an area of 46,900 square meters. There are more than 200 halls in the temple. Most of the buildings, Buddhist sutras, Buddhist Sculptures survived from the devastation of the Cultural Revolution. They are in a good state of preservation now. Among them, 500 gold arhat sculptures in the Arhat Hall is one of main features of the temple.

The Guiyuan Temple is very famous in the Buddhist world owning to perfect construction, spiffy sculpture and abundant collection. A large number of people including our compatriots in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and those residing abroad, as well as many foreign tourists including some important persons in the politics of all countries such as Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, Kissinger, United States Secretary of State, Li Guangyao, former prime minister of Singapore, Yasuhiro Nakasone, Prime Minister of Japan and some other famous persons have successively been here to visit it. They presented gifts to the temple separately.

The vegetarian diet made in the Guiyuan Temple is very famous too. You should taste when you arrive there.

Yellow Crane Tower

The present Yellow Crane Tower is a modern building that was built in the 1980s after the old Yellow Crane Tower was destroyed to make way for the Changjiang River Bridge that was completed in 1957. The original site was on a hill next to the river. The new building was built on a hill about a kilometer away from the river. The original building was a pagoda made of wood, and the new one is pagoda-style building made of concrete. It is a part of a small park area on the hill called Snake Hill Park, and there are some other buildings there you can visit such as one that has inscriptions of poems that were written by Chairman Mao. There is a teahouse where you can buy refreshments and listen to performances of traditional Chinese music.

The traffic that crosses the long bridge over the Yangtze River between Hanyang and Wuchang passes by the new pagoda-style building, so you can see it on the small hill from the road if you look towards the top of the hill as you pass by. From the top of the tower, you can get a good view of the city. It is about 50 meters high and has 5 stories. There are some telescopes for tourists to use. The Museum of the 1911 Revolution is at the bottom of the hill.

A tower called the Yellow Crane Tower was built about 1,800 years ago. It was a famous building in China. An ancient poem named "The Yellow Crane Tower" was written by Cui Hao, and many Chinese can recite it. So, the new park is a popular tourist destination. The original building was destroyed ages ago, and other buildings were built on the original spot and also destroyed. Some sources say that the last wooden building was built in the late 1800s.

Transport: Going to the Snake Hill Park is easy. You can take 703, 715 that is often a double-deck bus where you can see the view, and many other buses. You can see Snake Hill Park from the Changjiang River Bridge. It is less than a kilometer from it, and Wuluolu Avenue goes by it. The Wuluolu Avenue is the big main avenue in Wuchang that meets the bridge, continues on past many hotels and temples, and passes by several universities and East Lake Park area.

East Lake

The East Lake is a big lake in Wuchang that has lots of bays and measures about 35 square kilometers. It is surrounded by urban area or small parks. The whole park is divided into six scenic areas: the Tingtao Scenic Area, the Moshan Scenic Area, the Luoyan Scenic Area, the Baima Scenic Area, the Luohong Scenic Area and the Chuidi Scenic Area. The main scenic spots are the Yuyan Garden, a musical fountain, the Xingyin Pavilion, the Changtian Tower, the Huguang Pavilion, Tian Shui Yi Se, and the Qu Ti Ling Bo. People can take boats at any dock on the lakeside and get to the Moshan Zoo located at the other bank of the East Lake.

The East Lake parks have a lot of species of trees, and the Moshan Zoo is interesting for the red pandas, the giant panda if it is there, and other animals. Entry to most places around the lake is free, but the Moshan area requires a ticket of about 40 RMB (about 6 USD).

Location: It is about 30 minutes by bus along Wuluolu Avenue from the Yangtze River Bridge. It is a big lake with parks surrounding it, so there are many places to enter.

Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge

Completed in 1957, this engineering marvel is 1,670 meters long and has one level for automobiles and another for trains. The construction of this bridge provided direct rail service between north and south China for the first time. 

Snake Hill (Sheshan)

Sheshan has the shape of an immense snake with its head drinking from the Yangtze River and its tail cutting into the eastern part of the city. This hill used to be an important military fortresThe Snake Hill, Wuhans together with Tortoise Hill on the opposite bank of the Yangtze River. The best-known site on the hill is perhaps the YellowCraneTower (Huanghelou), which is associated with an old legend about a Taoist priest flying to Heaven on the back of a yellow crane. Remaining historical buildings include the Shenxiang Pagoda, Yue Fei Memorial Pavilion, Baobing Hall, the TaoistEvergreenTemple, and Yongyue Terrace, and there are many important stone carvings as well.