Wuhan – where nothing good really happened

We arrived in Wuhan slightly crazed from a ‘seven’ hour bus journey (i.e. it took nine hours). That was most of our day gone by the time we pitched up at our hostel, so we checked in, and headed straight out for dinner in a nearby restaurant (one dish was amazing – the other a mystery that we decided to leave unsolved). Pausing to stock up on basic supplies (water and snacks) at the local supermarket, we headed back for a fairly early night.

The next day was a work day, so we spent the morning and early afternoon booking trains for our trip to Xi’an the next night, and accommodation for our arrival in Xi’an, before settling down to a hard day at the office. The hostel had a great common room area and brilliant wi-fi, so we found a quiet corner and had a really productive day. Only… aggressive, nibbling creature s (mossies? Who knows) decided to attack me covertly, and the next day I woke up with both legs covered in bites and blisters. Grim! As we set out to explore Wuhan properly for the day, they were driving me crazy. Trying to ignore them as best I could, we headed into Wuhan by bus, passing the Yellow Crane Tower (which looked very impressive but sadly we ran out of time to visit it). 

We jumped off the bus and started walking toward the Guijuan Temple (further than we thought, but it was good exercise!) and when we got there found a fairly interesting temple with over 500 statues in one hall, and a bewildering array of gold-coated Buddhist figures (all different, and some quite angry and imposing-looking!) surrounding the walls of another hall. 

Another rather attractive feature were the courtyard pools filled with turtles and fish (just like in Shanghai) though this time the turtles were able to bask in the sun/shade on two enormous lotus flower sculptures. 

One sad sight though was watching four turtles feasting on one of the dead turtles in the pool, pulling at its legs (its head had already vanished…) and behaving quite aggressively. I hope this doesn’t suggest that they are underfed, as this temple is also supposed to be a turtle sanctuary, and turtles in China already have a raw deal. Apparently some of the turtles here are over 300 years old – so have historical as well as biological value!

After leaving the temple, we walked back toward the bridge our bus had crossed earlier, and on the way took a detour down some backstreets where we found a brilliant buffet-style eatery. I’m not quite sure what it all was, but it seemed relatively clean, the food hot, and the place was always busy, so we selected a plateful and stopped for a quick bite. There were some great vegetable dishes, and some non-suspicious meats (pork, mostly), though Bradley inadvertently picked up some liver – urgh! 

We continued through the backstreets to the bridge back to our hostel, and decided we had just enough time to walk across (it was a good thirty minute walk) before we went back to grab our bags and catch our train. 

First off we had to get a lift up to the upper bridge level as it was so high up (book fans – I thought of the Bridge by Iain Banks – it was quite surreal). The bridge is enormous, but well worth the trip - we got a great view of the Yellow Crane Tower (though sadly Wuhan is pretty polluted, so the air was pretty gloomy around it) and the Wuhan skyline, despite the polluted air, was at its best from here.

We witnessed the bizarre sight of loads of locals swimming in the river (it did not look a healthy colour! The Witterings it is not!) and we saw the largest quantity of pick-up trucks that you can fit onto a shipping boat pass beneath us. It reminded me of holidays of holidays to the Norfolk Broads when I was growing up – we used to pile our luggage into the back of my grandparents’ truck while my parents, Mike and I went up in the car. Happy days! 

We had just enough time to stock up on food and drinks for the train journey to Xi’an, before we picked up our stuff, and headed out of Wuhan. Not the most exciting place, and my principle souvenir is a mass of insect bites that are going to seriously dent my fun in Xi’an (and therefore Bradley’s too). Bring on the Jungle Formula!