China's breakfast capital — hot dry noodles, Yellow Crane Tower, and the Yangtze
Wuhan is China's most populous inland city — where the Han River meets the Yangtze at the geographic heart of the country, bridging three historic districts (Wuchang, Hankou, Hanyang) into one 11-million-strong megalopolis. Re Gan Mian (hot dry noodles tossed in sesame paste) are eaten at dawn at thousands of street stalls, and the Yellow Crane Tower has been rebuilt seven times on the same bluff in 1,700 years.
Wuhan's strategic position at the Han-Yangtze confluence made it the inland equivalent of Shanghai for Qing-era trade — the foreign concessions of Hankou were the heart of China's tea export industry. The Wuchang Uprising of October 10, 1911 sparked the Xinhai Revolution that ended 2,000 years of imperial rule, celebrated as Double Tenth Day. The city became globally known in early 2020 as the first city to identify COVID-19.