What to See in Wuhan - Top Sights and Attractions

The Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, simply known as the Huanan Seafood Market, was a live animal and seafood market in Jianghan District, Wuhan City, the capital of Hubei Province in Central China.

The market became widely known worldwide after being identified as the 'Ground Zero' site of COVID-19 and the resulting pandemic. The World Health Organization was notified on 31 December 2019 about an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan. Of the initial 41 people hospitalized with pneumonia who were officially identified as having laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection by 2 January 2020, two-thirds were exposed to the market. The market was opened on 19 June 2002 and closed permanently on 1 January 2020 for sanitary procedures and disinfection. Thirty-three out of 585 environmental samples obtained from the market indicated evidence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.^[3]

Museum. The Hubei Provincial Museum is one of the best known museums in China, with a large amount of state-level historic and cultural relics. Established in 1953, the museum moved to its present location in 1960 and gained its present name in 1963. Since 1999 a number of new buildings have been added. The museum received 1,992,512 visitors in 2017.

The museum is located in the Wuchang District of Wuhan, Hubei Province, not far from the west shore of Wuhan's East Lake. It has a collection of over 200,000 objects, including the Sword of Goujian, an ancient set of bronze bells (Bianzhong) and extensive artifacts from the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng and the tombs at Baoshan. The particular importance of several of the archaeological items in the museum's collection has been recognized by the national government by including them into the short list of Chinese cultural relics forbidden to be exhibited abroad.

On the afternoon of April 27, 2018, China's paramount leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Hubei Provincial Museum.^[4]

Building in Wuhan, China. Wuhan Poly Plaza, previously named Wuhan Poly Culture Plaza, is west of the intersection of Zhongnan Road and Hongshan Square in the Wuchang District of Wuhan, China. Its height is 221 meters, measured from surface to its roof; it has no spires. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, it has a floor area of 149,000 m2, which includes both the 46 floors of the main tower and 20 floors of its annex. With a design similar to a chair, the building leaves an open space between the main tower and its annex, below the bridge connecting those two at the height of its 20th floor. Floor 1 to 5 is designed as a shopping mall, 6 and 7 as restaurant and food court, 8 for a movie theater, and the rest of the floors for office space.^[9]

Hanyang District forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. Currently, it is a district and stands between the Han River and the Yangtze River, where the former drains into the latter. It is connected by bridges with its former sister cities, Hankou and Wuchang. Presently, on the left bank of the Yangtze, it borders the districts of Qiaokou to the north across the Han River, Jianghan to the northeast, Caidian to the southwest, and Dongxihu to the northwest; on the opposite bank it borders Wuchang and Hongshan. Guiyuan Temple is located in Hanyang.

The name "Hanyang" means "the Yang side of Han River", referring to the town's historic location on the north ("yang") bank of the Han River mouth. However, the lower Han River changed course to the north side of the town during Ming dynasty's Chenghua-era. The town, now on the south ("yin") side of the river, should have been renamed to "Hanyin" by naming convention, but the name "Hanyang" remained as it was well-established since the Sui dynasty. Administratively, the area forms Hanyang District of the modern Wuhan city, with an area of 108 square kilometers (42 sq mi) and a population of 510,000.

The Hanyang Arsenal is known for its production of the so-called "Hanyang rifle" - an indigenous Asian copy of the German Model 1888 Commission Rifle, which was heavily used in World War II, as well as in the Korean War and Vietnam War.^[11]

Truss bridge in Wuhan, China. The Wuhan Yangtze Great Bridge, commonly known as Wuhan First Yangtze Bridge, is a double-deck road and rail bridge across the Yangtze River in Wuhan, in Central China. At its completion in 1957, the bridge was the easternmost crossing of the Yangtze, and was often referred to as the "First Bridge of the Yangtze".

The bridge extends 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) from Turtle Hill in Hanyang, on the northern bank of the Yangtze, to Snake Hill in Wuchang, on the southern bank of the Yangtze. Plans for the bridge's construction were first made in 1910. A total of four exploratory surveys were made between 1913 and 1948 to identify a suitable site, but economic limitations and the combination of World War II and the Chinese Civil War prevented the bridge's building until the 1950s. Actual construction began in September 1955 and was completed in October 1957.

The upper level of the bridge is a two-way, four-lane automobile highway. The lower level is a double-track railway on the Beijing-Guangzhou railway line.^[12]

Tower in Wuhan, China. Tortoise Mountain TV Tower is a 311.4 metres high TV Tower in Hanyang District, Wuhan, Hubei, China. It is a concrete tower equipped with an observation deck in a height of 221.2 metres. It does not stand directly upon the hill, which is occupied by an ancient temple complex. Guishan TV Tower is China's first self-developed TV tower, opened in 1986.

The tower is located on Guishan ("Tortoise Mountain" or "Turtle Mountain") on the left (northwestern) bank of the Yangtze river, in the part of Wuhan that was historically known as Hanyang. It is located upon the northwestern shoulder of the mountain, reducing the impact upon the ancient temple set upon the peak, that peak being one of the two famous hills of Wuhan, the other being Sheshan (the Snake Mountain) on the opposite, right bank of the Yangtze, in Wuchang; the ancient Yellow Crane Tower is located there. Both hills have many historic ruins, and rows of sculptures of ancient warriors line the hill.^[13]

Lake in China. East Lake is a large freshwater lake within the city limits of Wuhan, China, the largest or the second largest urban lake in China. Wuhan's East Lake covers an area of 88 square kilometers. It is one of the 5A tourist zones of China, and admits over a million people yearly. It is one of the largest sites in Huazhong District. It is also the largest "City Lake" in China. East Lake is made of four areas, Ting Tao, Moshan, Luo Yan Island and Museum of Hubei Province.

One end of Moshan features a Daoist temple built over the putative site of where one of the characters in Romance of the Three Kingdoms performed special Qimen Dunjia rites before the famous battle of Red Cliffs. No one knows precisely the actual location, but the Moshan site was an archeological dig in the early part of the twentieth century.^[14]

National park in Wuhan, China. Wuhan Botanical Garden, or WBG, located in Wuhan, Hubei, China, has a collection of more than 4000 species of flora. WBG has a regular program to educate and create awareness about plant life and biodiversity amongst the general public.

The Wuhan Botanical Garden was created in 1956. It opened to the public two years later. The garden is one of China's three research-oriented botanical gardens. The garden was established to develop and maintain plant collections for purposes of display, conservation, education and research.

Wuhan Botanical Garden has 16 specialty gardens. Its Kiwifruit Garden and the National Kiwifruit Germplasm Repository contain over 70 percent of the world's kiwifruit species. Similarly, the Aquatic Plant Garden is the largest of its kind in the world. Its Wild Fruit Garden, the Rare and Endangered Plant Garden, and the Medicinal Herb Garden are the largest in China.^[15]