East Lake and Beyond

Today was a great day! I met up with a friend, and we jumped on some bicycles and headed out for a ride. I’d forgotten how much I missed riding, especially when it’s through scenery like East Lake.

We rode alongside East Lake in Wuchang, which is an enormous lake that looks like the sea without waves or a beach. You really have to struggle to see the other side on a nice day, and today was foggy. The road actually goes through the middle of the lake so there is a great expanse of water on both sides. It’s a really pretty place to be in.

Wuhan East Lake is China’s largest city park, the second-largest urban lake in China and the largest located in a city. The park encompasses 73 square kilometres of land, and the lake itself is 33 square kilometres. It was built in 1950 and is famous for being Chairman Mao’s second residence after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It is also a cultural hub for modern higher education and the traditional Chu culture. The CHu culture is a famous ancient culture of the Chu Kingdom, that thrived in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty from 770-256 BC.

Following our ride, we had lunch at the university cafeteria, which brought home how long it had been since I went to uni. We walked up the hill to see the university pagoda tower and the views across Wuhan Science and Technology University (and surrounding districts).