My love affair with Wuhan city

Wuhan, as I learnt later from my research online, has a lot of attributes that makes it very significant in the history of China and more importantly the formation of the People’s Republic of China. Talk about the Wuchang uprising which eventually led to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty in 1912. At a point in time the city was also the national capital of China because of its strategic position. It is one of the most ancient cities in China, and said to be older than even Beijing, Nanjing and Xi’an. It has a lot of museums displaying its past history and culture and with some that chronicles the history of Hubei province and China. The list is countless. I personally took a trip to the Hubei Provincial Museum situated in Wuchang to find out what it had to offer and it was a day well spent, though in the end I was so tired because there was so much to feast my eyes on and I wouldn’t let go until I was done.

In 2012, I chanced upon a biographic documentary on CCTV English Channel. According to the documentary, Chairman Mao had a house in Wuhan and the city used to be one of his favorite get-away places, so to soothe my curiosity, I trekked to this supposed retreat which surprisingly was open to the public- to see for myself how the Chairman lived.

I did not get a chance to enter the villa because I was alone with no guide, but never mind, I peeped around and took a couple of photographs and what really caught my attention was his car, a Rolls Royce, hmmm the Chairman rode in style.

The place was intact; most of his personal items were on display at the estate nestled at the banks of the East Lake, his furniture including a writing desk, which I presume had seen better days when defining letters and declaration were written on its surface.

Lifestyle could be good on your pocket in Wuhan, food and other basic everyday items are not really expensive compared to prices in first tier cities but the services….hmmm….I’d love to leave that out. Like some other cities in China, it’s not exactly what’s on the menu, if you get what I’m driving at. And the option sometimes is to take it or leave. The point is you get what you pay for. Don’t pay for less and expect more, it’s as simple as that.

Coming from a coastal city and fish being my favorite dish, I quickly fell in love with the national delicacy, the peck of Wuhan, ‘Wuchang-yu’- meaning Wuchang fish, it’s awesome, either grilled or fried and cooked with spicy sauce with chili peppers nicely cut and sprinkled around it. It’s always on the menu in almost all cities across China. It comes with a price though, so whenever I cannot afford, I choose the easiest option ‘DIY’- Do It Yourself, and there you are, below is a picture of my first DIY Wuchang- yu special.

People in Wuhan are very athletic and engage in a lot of sporting activities. The city has produced some of the worlds and China’s best talents and Olympics gold medalists, including female tennis player, 2011 French Open and 2014 Australian Open Champion Li Na. Others from my research include Xiao Hailiang an Olympic gold medalist in 3m springboard synchronized diving, Sydney 2000; Gao Ling, a professional badminton player, and two-time Olympic gold medalist in Sydney 2000, and Athens 2004; Fu Mingxia, a female diver, and four-time Olympic gold Medalist in Barcelona 1992, 2 in Atlanta 1996 and 1 in Sydney 2000. She is credited as the only diver who won gold medals at 3 Olympiads as well as one of the very few divers in the world who was able to win world championship in both platform diving and springboard diving. The list goes on and on.

My favorite sport, football or soccer, like so many other cities in China; however, isn’t that keenly contested here. The city’s football team, Wuhan Huanghelou, after years of being banned from the premier league was taken back into the fold in 2013, only to be kicked (relegated) out in the 2014 season after an abysmal performance in their first season. Increase in interest in the game is however improving and hopefully they might have a chance in the next season if things go well for them.

By and large the city is getting overpopulated and traffic seems quite unbearable sometimes, but the city officials had planned years ahead, Wuhan’s new subway metro system is the envy of other emerging cities. The subway, which became fully operational in 2012, has reduced traffic congestion drastically and made at least connecting to Wuhan’s three major train stations much easier.

Wuhan is a beautiful city and anyone who has lived there for more than a year would testify to that. The pollution there is not a far cry compared to other major cities. Yeah, there is the occasional smog and other forms of pollution but it is way better. What makes expats and Chinese alike bolt out of the city is the summer heat, which is quite unbearable. The hottest city in China is often described as a furnace. The summer heat-wave sometimes is fatal. But apart from that, when summer is over, it’s a jolly good place to live, study and work.