Since Covid-19’s outbreak, Wuhan became a place of interest for many people. Before Covid, most people didn’t actually know of Wuhan, myself included. After seeing friends visiting there, I added Wuhan to my list for Summer travel.
Where to stay?
I stayed in Hankou, close to the riverfront and nearby the Line 2 subway station. My hotel was a 5-10 minute walk from Jianghan Road and relatively easy to find. I stayed in Magnotel Hotel (No.5 Nanjing Road, Wuhan, 430014, Hubei, China), I would recommend it for its location and it was pretty nice inside. It was also easy to travel around Wuhan from this hotel area.
What did I see?
Jianghan Road
Guanggu Pedestrian Street (Spanish Style Street)
Yellow Crane Tower
Yangtze River
Han Street
Tanhualin
Lihuangpi Lu
Gude Temple
Guiyuan Temple
Hubu Alley
I started out in Wuhan at lunchtime. From the airport I took Line 2 to Jianghan Road, it took over an hour in total. From there, I started by walking through Jianghan Road to the hotel, checked in and changed. Then I jumped back on the Line 2 subway across the river to Wuchang area and Guanggu Pedestrian Street. (Subway stop Luoxiong Road)
Guanggu Pedestrian Street 光顾路
Spanish Street
From Luoxiong Lu subway, walk straight down past Costa, you’ll hit a point where everything has a European feeling to it. This is where Spanish Style street begins, I’d recommend walking through the middle. That way you can see all of the unusual styles of decorating and architecture they went for. Spanish style street is part of a European area, if you continue through the street you will find Italy Style Street, then German Style Street, finally French Style Street. This area isn’t amazing but it is something different, shops and restaurants are mostly typical China style.
Below: Italian Street – Burger King
Close by there is an area with a few western bars to check out. For cheap and quick food and drink, try Beer Barn. Definitely not amazing food but it is cheap and efficient. You can walk from this part to the Riverfront, if you time it right you can catch the lights coming on and see the ferries crossing the river lit up.
Yellow Crane Tower 黄鹤楼
Yellow Crane Tower was a nice walk from the river front. I chose to walk because of the nice weather, it took around 20 minutes. Once I arrived at the Tower I just had to show my green code and scan for a ticket. Very quick and easy to enter. There isn’t loads to do at the tower except walk up to it, and take some photos. You can get the ice lolly that matches the tower though so that’s fun to do while stood in front of it. The current Yellow Crane Tower was built in 1981.
Yangtze River武汉长江大桥
I would recommend the river cruise, I actually took it twice instead of using the subways and I really enjoyed it. The second time I took it was in the evening and you could see the lights of Wuhan’s river front around which was really cool. It cost 5RMB in the daytime and 10RMB in the evening, definitely cheaper than a DiDi.
The River Front at night
Tanhualin 昙华林
This is an area that comes to life at night. Lit up amazingly, you can wonder through little stores and homemade items. It’s a nice calm area to visit and is accessible by subway and walking.
The lights make it more fun.
Tanhualin Street --->
Gude Temple – 古德寺
I loved this temple! I did take a DiDi from my hotel to the temple which cost around 20RMB and took 15 minutes. The entrance to the temple is small and a little out of the way, locals will welcome you as you get closer and sell their incense sticks. The temple grounds are close together, with 2 main buildings which both look like a Spanish influence. In this temple, you will find a mini museum and a lotus garden. It was just so unusual to regular China temples.
Guiyuan Temple – 归元寺
Another temple I visited was Guiyuan Temple, again I took a DiDi to this location for the ease of it. This temple houses one building with 500 versions of Buddha, once you’ve followed the path around, dependent on the rules to follow, you can choose the number of the Buddha which stood out to you and collect the Buddha card from a window just outside. It’s interesting to find out why you were drawn to a certain statue.
The room with 500 Buddhas --->
Food
Mostly I found Western restaurants on my maps and visited these, however on my last morning, I found THE best English breakfast I have ever ate in China! I met Marcus, who has lived in the UK for many years, and is a close friend with many expats. He owns a small diner, in the middle of a secluded area, which offers full English or full Scottish breakfasts. Amazing!
Location – 武汉市 · 圜舍轻食坊Marcuskitchen
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