A Day in Wuhan
Today I spent some time touring Wuhan with a Chinese friend. We climbed the “small hill” near the university to see views of East Lake, but it was too smoggy to see much. Then we jumped on a bus to the riverside to catch a ferry.
What an experience! There was a race to see who could get the first chairs and the first viewing spots. Add to that the growing feeling emanating from nervous passengers that death is indeed possible for those that don’t get on this particular ferry.
One warning, if you don’t feel like rushing… don’t catch the ferry! It was like a race to see who could get the first chair or the first viewing spot. Add to that the feeling that if you don’t get on this ferry, you could… die! Anyway, we got on, got a viewing spot (go us!) and waited for the ferry to leave.
The departure point is between the two main bridges connecting Wuchang to the rest of Wuhan (Wuhan was originally three cities, Wuchang being the one on the other side of the river). The first bridge was the first permanent bridge to cross the Yangtze in the Chang Jiang region. Due to traffic congestion, the bridge has an interesting rule for taxis: if the day of the month is even, only even-numbered taxis are allowed to use it, and if the day of the month is odd, only odd-numbered taxis are allowed to use it.
The Yangluo Yangtze River Bridge, or second bridge, is a suspension bridge. When it was opened, with a span of 1280 metres, it was tied with the Golden Gate Bridge as the ninth-longest suspension bridge in the world.
The ferry docked at Hankou, which is the main centre of Wuhan. We ate dumplings for lunch with a preserved egg and tofu salad, and a tomato salad. Preserved eggs, or century eggs, are a Chinese culinary dish made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime and rice hulls for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. It results in a black, but extremely tasty egg that you can just peel and eat, or slice into salads. The “tomato salad” was just sliced tomato with sugar on it…the Chinese love their sugar!
Finally, we walked alongside the river on the Hankou side. The side of the river between the two main bridges has been developed into a pretty combination of concrete and gardens. Today being two days after National Day, there were thousands of citizens and their little children flying kites, rollerblading and playing on the play equipment (including two frogs pushing a barrel around in circles???).
All in all, a great day… may there be many more!!
