Hubei and Wuhan

As I noted earlier, we've learned a great deal about Hubei Province and Wuhan City. First, the name "Wuhan" is actually a combination of the names of three cities that joined together to create a single large city in the 1970s or 1980s: Wuchang, Hanyang, and Hanjou. Our hotel, the East Lake Hotel, is located in the area called Wuchang. It's the oldest part of Wuhan with a history that extends back thousands of years. It's considered the cultural center of the city of Wuhan and houses many universities and the Hubei Provincial Museum, which we visited today. Hanjou is the smallest of the three towns that joined; it is now considered the industrial center of the city of Wuhan, housing industry and joint ventures with overseas firms (French, Russian, American, etc.). Hanyang is the commercial center of the city of Wuhan and the newest of the three areas. Although newest, it has experienced that fastest growth and westernization. It houses many commercial ventures and includes many new highrise office and residential spaces. We visited a park yesterday along the Yangtze River (called Chang Jiang here in China) and ate at a local restaurant called Prince or Princes or something like that located in Hanyang. The food was excellent - apparently this restaurant is a favorite of Josh, one of CCAI's co-founders.

We've learned a little more about the names of the city and town. The name "Hubei" means north of the lake and "Hunan" means south of the lake. The lake is on the border between Hunan and Hubei. Hubei is the home of the Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze River, one of the largest engineering projects in the world. The Yangtze is the third longest river in the world after the Nile and Amazon, and Wuhan sits almost on the middle of the river's length, nearly halfway between the start of the river in Chongqing and the mouth of the river in Shanghai. Wuhan means 5 lakes - the word "wu" means 5 and the word "han" means lake. The city of Wuhan is full of lakes and rivers. It's the only city in China located on both banks of the Yangtze River. It also includes the Han River, which flows into the Yangtze here in Wuhan. Water is everywhere in the city, so fresh water seafood is quite plentiful and fresh (which explains the eel, fish heads, and turtles on the buffet line here in the hotel restaurant). Wuhan is a very large city, one of the largest in China, with 8 million in the city limits. (By comparison, Hong Kong has a population of just over 7 million.) It's also the only city in the world with a lake the size of East Lake (after which our hotel was named) within its city limits.

We learned today that Hubei province is known for three characteristics: As a crossroads for all of eastern China, Wuhan is the gateway to 9 provinces (drawing crosshairs over China will connect Beijing to the north with Guangzhou to the south, Chongqing to the west and Shanghai to the east. Hubei is known as the "Minnesota of China" for its many lakes. And Hubei is known as the land of rice and fish. It is said that a good harvest in Hubei, Hunan, and Guongdong will feed all of China.

Our CCAI representative, Joanna, has been great. She's helped us better understand why Chinese people don't adopt domestically, even though it's allowed; she's shared a little about her own life here in China; and she's offered knowledge and expertise about raising Chinese babies. Her assistant, Christina, has been extremely knowledgeable about the history and culture of Wuhan and Hubei. She has toured us both around the city and through the museum, and she definitely knows what she's talking about. We'd love to return to Wuhan one day to visit "Aunt Joanna" and "Aunt Christina" just as we'd love to return to Nanning one day to visit "Uncle Michael" and "Uncle Sarge." Maybe the aunts and the uncles could get together one day!

I'll post more about the city, the province, and our little world in the hotel some time later. Now, blessed silence has descended as the girls are all asleep. Time for the grownups to hit the hay!