Wuhan: Central China's River Metropolis

Geographical position

Wuhan lies in a favorable central China location at the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Han River (漢江 / 汉江, Hanjiang, Hanshui). The flat urban area, which is characterized by numerous lakes, merges into hill country in a southerly direction. Due to rapid urbanization, the number of lakes in the city area decreased from 127 in the 1980s to about 30 in 2019. Due to the geographical location, floods occur repeatedly in the city.

Administrative structure

The city is divided by the two rivers into the three former cities of Wǔchāng (武昌), Hànkǒu (漢口 / 汉口) and Hànyáng (漢陽 / 汉阳). Hanyang and Wuchang have been preserved as independent urban districts (at the county level). Hankou, on the other hand, was subdivided into several new urban districts. Today, Wuhan is composed of a total of 13 urban districts. These are:

• Jiang'an Municipality (江岸區 / 江岸区), 64 km², 640,000 inhabitants, seat of the municipal government, city center;
• Jianghan Municipality (江漢區 / 江汉区), 33 km², 460,000 inhabitants;
• Qiaokou Municipality (礄口區 / 硚口区), 46 km², 540,000 inhabitants;
• Hanyang Municipality (漢陽區 / 汉阳区), 108 km², 480,000 inhabitants;
• Wuchang Municipality (武昌區 / 武昌区), 81 km², 980,000 inhabitants;
• Qingshan Municipality (青山區 / 青山区), 45 km², 460,000 inhabitants;
• Hongshan Municipality (洪山區 / 洪山区), 509 km², 780,000 inhabitants;
• Dongxihu Municipality (東西湖區 / 东西湖区), 439 km², 250,000 inhabitants;
• Hannan Municipality (漢南區 / 汉南区), 288 km², 110,000 inhabitants;
• Caidian Municipality (蔡甸區 / 蔡甸区), 1,094 km², 460,000 inhabitants;
• Jiangxia Municipality (江夏區 / 江夏区), 2,015 km², 660,000 inhabitants;
• Huangpi Municipality (黃陂區 / 黄陂区), 2,261 km², 1.1 million inhabitants;
• Xinzhou Municipality (新洲區 / 新洲区), 1,500 km², 960,000 inhabitants.

Climate

Wuhan is located at 30°33' north latitude and 114°17' east longitude. Wuhan has a humid subtropical climate with an average annual temperature of 17.3 °C and total annual precipitation of about 1300 mm. The average temperature in January drops to 4.1 °C, while it rises to 29.2 °C in July. This makes Wuhan one of the hottest and humidest cities in China in summer. All twelve months are humid.

The 2000 census counted 8,312,700 residents in Wuhan, broken down by ethnic group as follows:

Population development of the agglomeration

The population of the Wuhan urban agglomeration has grown rapidly in recent years. In 2035, it is expected to have over 10 million inhabitants.

The Wuhan region was first settled about 3000 years ago. During the Han Dynasty, Hanyang's importance as a port increased. In the 3rd century, walls were built to protect Hanyang (206 AD) and Wuchang (223 AD). The latter also marks the founding of Wuhan.

In 223, the "Yellow Crane Tower" (黃鶴樓 / 黄鹤楼, Huánghèlóu) was built on the Yangtze River on the side of Wuchang.

It is possible that the Black Death first broke out in Wuhan in the 14th century.

Under Mongol rule (Yuan Dynasty), Wuchang was elevated to the rank of provincial capital. About 300 years ago, Hankou was finally one of the four most important trading cities in the country.

Similar to Shanghai, there were European trading bases (concession areas) in the Hankou district until the mid-1930s, which is why much colonial architecture still remains, such as the Imperial German Consulate.

Wuchang and Hankou played a central role several times in the recent history of the country, the period of the Republic of China. In Wuchang, the Chinese Revolution began in 1911 with the republican uprising against the imperial central government in Beijing. Kuomintang founder Sun Yat-sen was proclaimed the first (provisional) president, but left leadership to Beijing's army chief Yuan Shikai, after whose death Wuchang and Hankou fell to the Chili faction of the Northern Militarists. Their general, Wu Peifu, controlled the railroad line from Hankou to Beijing and had a communist railroad workers' uprising crushed in 1923.

But by 1926, a united front of Kuomintang, Communists and Guangxi warlords captured the city and moved their southern counter-government to Wuhan. After the conquest of Nanjing, the united front broke apart in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek formed a national government in Nanjing from right-wing Kuomintang, while left-wing Kuomintang under Wang Jingwei formed a revolutionary government in Wuhan together with the Communists. Chiang subdued both Beijing and Wuhan, but was driven out of Nanjing by the Japanese army in 1937. Instead, Hankou became Chiang's seat of government and de facto capital of China, but was also captured by the Japanese in 1938 after the Battle of Wuhan, which lasted several months. From 1938 to 1945, Chongqing (neighboring Sichuan province) was Chiang's capital.

Today's Wuhan was formed in 1953 by the merger of Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang. Today, Wuhan is the second largest inland city in the PRC after Chongqing.

In 2017, a biolab for research on most dangerous pathogens (BSL-4) was completed in Wuhan at a cost of 44 million U.S. dollars (300 million yuan).

The world's first confirmed cases of people infected and ill with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus came from Wuhan. The first cases of an unknown lung disease occurred there in late November 2019. From Wuhan, the virus spread around the world within months. On January 23, 2020, the city was quarantined due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The airport and train stations were closed, mass transit was suspended, and curfews were imposed; residents were not allowed to leave the city. The curfew was lifted on April 7, 2020.

According to a study from 2014, Wuhan generated a gross domestic product of 231.55 billion US dollars in purchasing power parity. In the ranking of the economically strongest metropolitan regions worldwide, it thus ranked 45th. Counted as an independent country, this would place it among the 50 largest economies in the world. The GDP per capita is 22,724 US dollars. In terms of prosperity, this puts Wuhan in the middle range among Chinese cities.

The city is the industrial center of Central China and has the typical mix of manufacturing plants of many industries typical of Chinese cities with millions of inhabitants, including engine, ship, vehicle and mechanical engineering, cement factories, textile plants, chemical plants, paper production, an aluminum plant and a German-style brewery. A clear focus is on iron production (from local ores and coal) and the steel industry with several rolling mills. For example, a cold rolling mill was built with the help of German specialists from the twin city of Duisburg.

Wuhan lies almost exactly in the middle between the large areas of Beijing in the north and Guangzhou (Canton), Shenzhen and Hong Kong in the south, as well as Shanghai in the east and Chongqing in the west of the giant empire. In all these directions, there are continuous highways that meet here.

Traditionally, the Yangtze River, which is about 1250 meters wide here, is the lifeline for heavy and mass transports. Wuhan Port is the largest inland water port in China, as the river is also navigable for ocean-going vessels up to here. There is also a shipyard here that builds military submarines (Yuan class).

Wuhan has seven bridges and one tunnel crossing the Yangtze River. The First Yangtze Bridge in Wuhan was built in 1957 with the support of the Soviet Union and allowed for the first time a railroad connection between the northern and southern halves of the People's Republic. It is still an impressive structure with a lower railroad line and a road above. In 1995, the second road bridge (a cable-stayed bridge) was opened. In 2009, another combined rail and road bridge was opened for the Beijing-Guangzhou express route.

In December 2009, Wuhan became the terminus of the Beijing-Hong Kong high-speed rail line, the fastest rail link in the world at that time, to Guangzhou. The line was extended to Shijiazhuang in the fall of 2012 and reached Beijing at the end of 2012.

There is now a rail link for regular container traffic between Duisburg and Wuhan.

Wuhan Tianhe International Airport is one of China's medium-sized airports and is located about 28 kilometers northwest of the city. Its flight schedule features mainly domestic flights, plus a few direct connections to East Asian and Indian destinations. Long-distance flights to Europe are mostly handled via feeders to/from aviation hubs in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. A second terminal was opened in 2008; however, with only one runway currently available, the facility is near capacity.

Inner-city traffic suffers enormously from the burden of too-fast motorization: more and more new road projects, both as wide breakthroughs in the old settlement cores and as new ring and feeder roads to the new suburbs on the outskirts, are intended to remedy the situation.

A rail-based mass transit network has been under construction since 2012. Seven rail lines with a total length of 540 kilometers are planned, in the center as subway and otherwise as commuter rail. Currently (as of May 2013), the metro consists of two lines with a total length of around 57 kilometers. Four more lines are to be added by 2017, bringing the metro network to around 173 km.

In addition to Wuhan University, which was initially founded in 1903 as a teachers' academy, the city is home to twenty other universities and colleges, some of which have established themselves on newly built campuses in scenic locations. Fields such as surveying and geography, medicine, water management, metallurgy, geology and building materials are covered and are mostly complemented by an associated research landscape and new technology parks.

Wuhan University, with its landscaped park-like campus situated on large expanses of water, is considered one of the most prestigious universities in China.

In addition, other research institutions are located in Wuhan, such as the Institute of Virology Wuhan.

• Probably one of the most important sights in Wuhan is the Crane Pagoda.
• The Wuhan Changchun Guan is a Daoist temple in the Wuchang district.
• Furthermore, on the western shore of Dong Hu (東湖 / 东湖, Dōng Hú - "East Sea") there are many tourist attractions. One of them is the Hubei Provincial Museum, where you can admire a great many excavation pieces from ancient tombs and also a unique carillon for concerts. In addition, on the western shore there are parks, a bird zoo, as well as an ocean museum.
• On Jiqing Street (吉慶街 / 吉庆街, Jíqìngjiē) can be found many restaurants and street artists.
• On Turtle Mountain is the 311 meter high Guishan TV tower with an observation deck.
• Maya Beach Wuhan Water Park is one of the largest outdoor swimming pools in the People's Republic of China.
• The city's tallest building at 438 meters is the Wuhan Center, which will be completed in 2019.
• The Wuhan World Trade Tower has a height of 273 meters.
• Wuhan Qiakou Project 1 is a project.

• Discovered on November 13, 1980, asteroid (3206) Wuhan has borne the name of the city since 1990.
• As part of a Chinese art exhibition on the Rhine and Ruhr, the Class 422 multiple unit 75 of the Rhine-Ruhr commuter rail system was christened with the name of the city.

• Netherlands Arnhem, Netherlands, since 1999
• France Bordeaux, France, since 1998
• Korea Sud Cheongju, South Korea, since 2000
• Germany Duisburg, Germany, since 1982
• Romania Galați, Romania, since 1987
• Hungary Győr, Hungary, since 1995
• United States Houston, USA, since 2016
• Sudan Khartoum, Sudan, since 1995
• Ukraine Kiev, Ukraine, since 1990
• Iceland Kópavogur, Iceland, since 2007
• United Kingdom Manchester, United Kingdom, since 1986
• Canada Markham (Ontario), Canada, since 2006
• Japan Ōita, Japan, since 1979
• United States Pittsburgh, USA, since 1982
• Austria St. Pölten, Austria, since 2005
• Australia Sydney, Australia, since 2015
• Mexico Tijuana, Mexico, since 2013

City friendship:

• New Zealand Christchurch, New Zealand, since 2006

Countries that have opened a consulate in Wuhan:

• United States USA, agreement since 1981, opening since 2008
• France France, agreement since 1998, opening since 1998
• Korea Sud South Korea, agreement since 2009, opening since 2010
• United Kingdom Great Britain, agreement since 2014, opening since 2015

Countries that want to open a consulate in Wuhan:

• Japan Japan, opening intention
• Russia Russia, agreement since 2015, opening unknown

Sons and daughters of the city

• Heinrich Röhreke (1910-2001), German diplomat
• Wu Yi (* 1938), politician
• Wang Du (* 1956), artist
• Cao Dan (* 1960), painter
• Ping Qiu (* 1961), artist
• Tian Bingyi (* 1963), badminton player
• Xiaodong Wang (* 1963), US biochemist and molecular biologist.
• Zeng Fanzhi (* 1964), painter
• Xu Fan (* 1967), actress
• Qiao Hong (* 1968), table tennis player and five-time world champion
• Chen Jing (* 1968), table tennis player
• Huang Liping (* 1972), gymnast
• Xiao Hailiang (* 1977), water diver
• Yao Jie (* 1977), badminton player
• Fu Mingxia (* 1978), water diver
• Gao Ling (* 1979), badminton player and Olympic champion
• Li Ting (* 1980), tennis player
• Li Na (* 1982), tennis player
• Hu Jia (* 1983), water diver
• Li Li (* 1983), badminton player
• Jinjin Harder (* 1984), reality TV actress
• Hao Junmin (* 1987), soccer player
• Liu Yifei (* 1987), actress and singer
• Fu Mingtian (* 1990), Singaporean badminton player
• Zhang Xizhe (* 1991), soccer player
• Tian Tao (* 1994), weightlifter

Honorary citizen

• Werner Gerich (1919-2003), German engineer