Wuhan travel review & recommendations by Father_Son_Cycle

WUHAN - Hubei Province, China

Background

My teenage son and I visited Wuhan at the start of the rainy season (April to July) as part of our cycle trip from Ireland to Japan (see our blog at www.bugbitten.com/father_son_cycle). Wuhan is a combination of three former cities: Hankou, Wuchang (where the huge university is) and Hangyang. The main centre is the historic former city of Hankou which was a very busy and prosperous trading centre on the huge Yangtze River. It had enormous importance around the end of the 19th Century and the historic grand buildings are a testament to this illustrious past.

Accommodation

We stayed in the Hankou district of Wuhan for 4 days in a family-run budget hotel named the Shi Feng. It is on Minzhu Yue Lu at 182 only 5 minutes walk (North side) from the main Zhongshan Dadao. Telephone 027-85853099. We paid 100Y for a clean, modern, spacious twin room with kettle, air conditioning and cable TV. The hotel is conveniently located right near the busy centre but in a smaller side street with plenty of cheap, delicious places to eat nearby. There is a similar hotel further west on the same street called Chufeng Hotel along with a couple of budget chain hotels such '7 Days'.
A more up-market hotel nearby, but reasonably priced for what you get (4 star luxury, good location near but oiff the main street and good service) is The Cosmopolitan Hotel. Located in a high-rise block in a pedestrian shopping street (Qianlin Silu) a twin / double costs around 300Y with full buffet breakfast.

Reasons to visit Wuhan

There is plenty to do here and the three districts still have different characters. Hankou is probably where most visitors will spend their time. It is where the 'buzz' is although Henyang and Wuchang make interesting places to visit for a day.

For us the nicest thing about Wuhan is the lack of foreign tourists. It is a vibrant living city and even the historic buildings along Hankou's Bund (Yanjiang Dadao) still operate in a practical everyday manner. You can immerse yourself in modern Chinese daily life here. Fly a kite, go for dumplings, spend hours in bookshops, drink iced tea at street corners and eat noodles for breakfast in one of the many steaming backstreet noodle-bars. We never tired of it. Sam would like to come back here to work for a year.

Eating and Drinking

Restaurants and bars are generally pretty cheap in Wuhan and eating out is popular with the locals. We tended to go to one of the noodle bars in our street by our hotel for breakfast. This is always a lively experience, delicious, nourishing and a great way to meet local people who are very friendly and helpful. A large bowl of noodles (various kinds) with a few vegetables and some meat if you want it costs around 2.5 to 5Y. The best are the moslem places (watch for headscarf / round hat) that specialise in hand made noodles which they make in front of you as you eat. They are delicious and it is really interesting to watch.

For lunch we usually went to a street place in a sidestreet again and ate rice with a dish of vegetables, mushrooms (excellent in China) and often egg and tomato (found everywhere in China - Fan chi Ji dan). About 15Y a head.

For dinner we often went to a slightly better (more comfortable) indoor place and had a number of dishes including the beef (Niurou) which is invariably lean and good, also aubergine was a favourite. We often had a side order of dumplings. Dinner often only cost around 25Y a head although it is easy to spend more such as when we went to Japanese places (Ajisen Ramen is a chain in Chinese cities - very good, reasonably priced but easy to get carried away) where we might spend 70Y a head.

Beer (Pinjiu) in China is consistently good so long as you like the lager style. It is also cheap. Around 5Y for a large 600ml bottle n a street restaurant, 10Y in a better restaurant and 3Y in a shop. There are also an array of stronger drinks (some called Chinese wine are actually a spirit) on offer. These are also usually cheap (around 8Y for a 250ml bottle) although there are special versions available at top prices and foreign imported drinks are naturally relatively expensive (draught Guinness where available in hotel bars etc is around 600Y a pint!).

Hot-pot restaurants are very popular in Wuhan and make a bit of a special sociable occassion of a meal which can go on for hours. This is where you have a heated pot in the centre of your table and you order uncooked meat, seafood and veg to cook yourself. We went to a particularly good place with some local friends we had met whilst looking for a hotel. It was called 'Delicious Hot-Pot Restaurant' and is at the corner of Chanin Lu and Zhizhi Si Lu. Cost around 35Y per head not including drinks (10Y for a beer).

N.B don't worry too much about being served dog without knowing. The chinese do eat it - mainly in the south - but it is expensive so they are not going to give it to you instead of pork for example.

Chic Cafes

Along the Bund in Hankou (Yanjian Dadao) there are a number of historic and well worn cafe/bars with a decadent past. The most atmospheric of these are: The Vienna Bar, The Victoria Tea Rooms and The Bordeax Bar. The more Art Deco Shipsal Club / Bar is also lovely. It is fitted out like a ship on the ground first floor (see photo) - inside and out. There are also plenty of coffee bars around (and inside) the Grand Ocean Shopping Mall in the centre on Zhongshan Dadao.

Partying

We found the atmosphere in the street cafes vibrant enough at nights but for those seeking the club-life there are plenty of places to go in the centre of Hankou along the main Zhongshan Dadao, especially near to Grand Ocean shopping mall. These are  busy, fairly unpretentious (Wuhan is a very young city) and inexpensive. There are also nightclubs aimed at older wealthier customers along the Bund (Yanjiang Dadao) e.g. Shipsal Club or at one of the luxury hotels.

What to do

Apart form eating a drinking, which is covered above and is especially worthwhile in Hankou, there are museums to see and some lovely historic buildings. For those interested in shopping Hankou is a good location with non-touristic prices. However, we found the greatest pleasure in just hanging out along the Bund and in coffee bars / tea shops etc the most rewarding. People fly kites on the riverfront 'beach' along the Bund just behind the port long distance bus station. There are markets everywhere.

Getting Around

Wuhan has a pretty good public transport system and cheap taxis. There is an overhead light railway running West-East in Hankou and plenty of busses if you take the trouble to ask / work out which ones go where. Wuhan is also a big long distance transport hub so there are plenty of trains and coaches leaving frequently and serving the whole country. Wuhan's airport is around 30km north of Hankou.  

Summary

Plenty of tourists / travellers pass through Wuhan on their way to somewhere with better known tourist sights. They are missing a slice of 'real' China that is worth hanging around for. We found plenty to do for 4 days here and would say it is one of our favourite Chinese locations during our 6 weeks travel around the country. I would rather spend a week here and miss the contrived upmarket theme park that is Hangzhou any day.