10/27/02 - Bus ride to Wuhan. Visited Hubei province museum to see a 2400 year old tomb, and watched the chime bells performance. Also visited East Lake where Mao once vacationed. Last stop was the Yellow Crane Tower. Staying at the Wuhan Asia Hotel. Went out to the street market for a bit. Local Guide: Wendy Lee.

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After an early breakfast, we said good-bye to the ship and its crew and started our 5-hour bus ride to Wuhan. There was one quick restroom stop and most of us got off the bus to stretch and take care of personal business. There were quite a few street stands, and most of them were selling the same things, like boiled ears of corn, sesame bread, and other munchies. I bought a sesame bread for RMB$1. I was pretty psyched to eat local food but was not pleased with the result. Mrs. Chen gave me an ear of corn. The corn looked promising, but it was too firm and not sweet enough for me. We arrived Wuhan shortly after noon.

Before we enter the city of Wuhan, we were riding on the highway and that was a nicely built highway. Smooth and wide. Along the highway, we can see new housing developments, very clea and modern. However, when we reached the city center, it looked just like a typical Asian country city. There were lots of street vendors, shops lined up along the two sides of the streets, and the streets were filled with people.

On the bus ride to Wuhan, we also met Kristen Sze (daytime news anchor of Channel 7), her husband, and her parents. We basically discussed how annoying the Politician was the entire time. Kristen also gave us the name of a store where we could get fake branded goods in Shanghai. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to visit the store.

What's more interesting is that I found out that my friend Nancy was elementary school classmates with Kristen Sze in Taiwan. When I told Nancy I met Kristen and her husband, Nancy asked what I thought of Kristen's Caucasian husband. I was surprised and told Nancy that Kristen's husband was Asian. The only explanation we could come up was that this was Kristen's 2nd marriage. Nancy was sure of her information since she got it from Kristen's aunt (Lu Liu's mom).

You can see Kristen's profile on the local TV channel's website: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/aboutus/bios_kristen_sze.html

About WuHan
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province. It was formed in 1950 from the 3 cities of Hankou, Wuchang and Hanyang. Joined together to form Wuhan, the city sprawls out from both banks of the Yangtze and the 3 cities are linked by impressive bridges that cross the river.

Hankou is perhaps the best known of the 3 cities of Wuhan. It became a treaty port in 1841 and was once the center of the China tea trade. Hankou has a large passenger ship terminal for Yangtze cruises and is a thriving commercial port.

Wucheng is the oldest of the 3 cities and was founded in the 1st century AD. Once the capital of the region Wucheng has now outgrown its city walls and spreads out to the expanses of the East Lake. The symbol of Wuhan, the Yellow Crane Tower is located in Wucheng. Wuhan's industrial developments are centered on Hanyang, which is the smallest of the 3 cities.

Wuhan is famous as the place where Mao Zedong made his famous swims across the Yangtze. First in 1956, and then to a worldwide audience in 1966, he used his river swims to prove he was still alive and active.

Wuhan is the hub of transportation in central China and its extensive railway network and river traffic has attracted investment. For visitors pausing in Wuhan before or after their Yangtze cruise, there are a few attractions to enjoy such as the Yellow Crane Tower and the scenic East Lake area. Along with Chongqing and Nanjing, Wuhan is known as one of the "3 furnaces of China" as temperatures rise towards 40C in July and August.

After being picked up by our local guide, Wendy Lee*, we first had lunch. Poor Marie saw another cockroach in this particular restaurant.

After lunch, we visited Hubei provincial Museum. The main attraction was the artifacts from a 2,400-year-old tomb. Of the artifacts unearthed, I like the chime bells the best. We also attended one of the musical performances in the museum. The musicians played replicas of the musical instruments discovered in this tomb. That was nice.

Hubei Provincial Museum
The Hubei Provincial Museum established in 1953 contains the most important collections of artifacts in the province. More than 140,000 items, mainly from a big tomb excavated in 1978, are well preserved here, including 645 first class cultural relics and 16 national treasures.

In the summer of 1978, Hubei Provincial archaeologists working near Cheng Guan (present-day Suizhou) in Sui County excavated a huge tomb more than 2,400 years old. Dating from around 433 BC, the tomb was that of Marquis Yi of the state of Zeng. Zeng was one of the hosts of lesser states during the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.).

We also visited the East Lake for a few minutes. Hubei is also known as the province with a thousand lakes, and East Lake is one of the larger ones. Mao Zedong had vacationed here often.

Then we went to our last stop of the day, Yellow Crane Tower. The tower was originally built during the Three Kingdom period for military purpose. It had since been built and destroyed over 20 times. The current one was built in 1985, out of concrete and steel. This is somewhat disappointing since I had hope that some parts were authentic. The tower also becomes a symbol of peacetime since it was often destroyed during wartime.

My uncle told me that the tower is located on top of the Snake Hill, opposite another hill across the river called Turtle Hill. But the Turtle Hill is no longer in existence because Mao gave an order and completely flattened it. I am sure there was a reason, but I don't remember.

There were a lot of dummies in tribal costumes on display around the Yellow Crane Tower. I guess there must've been some kind of celebration or event. I took some photos of them just because.

Yellow Crane Tower
Yellow Crane Tower (Huanghe Tower) is located on top of the Snake Hill in Wuhan City. It was originally built 1,700 years ago (223 AD) during the Three Kingdoms Period. It is the most famous tower among the three well-known towers (the Yellow Crane Tower, Yueyang Tower and Tenwang Pavilion) in south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Story has it that the location was a wine-shop run by Mrs. Xin. A Taoist priest wanted to thank Mrs. Xin for her hospitability, so he painted a magic crane on the wall. The priest told Mrs. Xin that the crane would come off the wall to dance for her customers whenever Mrs. Xin recited a prayer. After that this wine shop was always full of guests and the business is booming. The years later, the Taoist priest revisited the wine shop. This time he just played the flute and then rode on the crane to fly up to the sky. To show her appreciation, Mrs. Xin built a tower named Yellow Crane Tower.

One more legends about this tower: A man named Fei Wei practice austerities to be an immortal in Yellow Crane Hill, and then he go to heaven riding on a yellow crane.

The Tower used to be of complete wood structure. Destroyed over 20 times by fire, lightening and war, the tower was rebuilt several times. Complete renovation of the tower began in 1981, and was completed and open to public in 1985. The design of the new tower was modeled on its last design of the Qing Dynasty.

The old Yellow Crane Tower was a three-story building, which was 9 zhangs and 9 chis high (with 7 chis high bronze top). The new tower looks very magnificent with five stories, which is 51.4 meters high in all (with 5 meters high gourd shape top) and 20 meters than the old one. The ground floor of the old tower is 15 meters wide in each side and the new one's ground floor is 20 meters wide. Therefore we can say that Yellow Crane Tower has been reconstructed instead of being renovated.

After dinner, we were sent off to the Wuhan Asia hotel. After we settled in, the four of us took a taxi to a nearby shopping mall. We each had one chicken wing from McDonald's, and Marie also bought some roasted chestnuts. We decided to walk back to the hotel, and was lost once.