Central China travel guide

Places to visit in Central China

Shanghai

In all of China, in all the world really, there is no other city like Shanghai. This huge, sprawling beast of a metropolis has risen from the mud and silt of the Yangzi Delta, pushed aside its rivals and emerged as one of the liveliest and most exciting cities on the planet. Read more about Shanghai…

Suzhou and the Grand Canal

The historic silk town of Suzhou is one of China’s major sights – famed for its dreamy canal setting and classical ­gardens. And if Suzhou’s charms whet your appetite, you will be drawn to the historic architecture of the other cities and towns – Wuxi, Tongli, Wuzhen and more – that are connected by the historic Grand Canal, a feat of ancient engineering to rival the Great Wall. Read more…

Hangzhou

Easily accessed from Shanghai on new ultra-speedy rail links, Hangzhou is one of China’s most visited destinations. Its most cherished sight is the celebrated West Lake (Xi Hu), a postcard-perfect realisation of classical Chinese scenery. Read more about Hangzhou…

Nanjing

The old southern capital of Nanjing is one of China’s most attractive big cities and subtly different from the other urban areas of the Lower Yangzi region. For one thing, it isn’t a rapid-fire commercial city, and the relative lack of investment – compared with the other regional boom towns – means that Nanjing is calmer, quieter and ­better-preserved than its neighbours. Read more about Nanjing…

Yangzi River Cruises

One of the most popular tourist attractions in China is a cruise down the formidable Yangzi river, passing through the awe-inspiring Three Gorges. The longest river in China (and the third-longest in the world) the Yangzi meanders eastwards for some 6,300km (3,900 miles) across the middle of China, traditionally dividing?the country’s north and south. From the delta just north of Shanghai the river is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Wuhan, nearly 1,000km (620 miles) upstream. One of the most ambitious engineering projects ever undertaken, the Three Gorges Dam was completed in 2006.

The most spectacular scenery on the river is to be found downstream from Chongqing as far as Yichang. This stretch takes anything from 11 hours on a hydrofoil to 2 or 3 days on a cruise ship. Since the construction of the Three Gorges Dam the water level on the Chang Jiang has risen by some 175 metres?(575ft), which has made the landscape a little less dramatic (and a lot safer for river traffic).

The entire length of the Three Gorges (Sanxia) is about 190km (120 miles). From west to east the individual gorges are Qutang Xia, Wu Xia and Xiling Xia. Although it is only 8km (5 miles) long and the shortest of the three, Qutang Xia is probably the most fascinating. Perpendicular walls rise up from the river, pinching the gorge to a width of 100 metres (330ft).

Before Wu Xia is the town of Wushan, where the Daning He joins the main river. Upstream along this tributary are the beautiful Three Little Gorges (Xiao Sanxia); the journey involves transferring to smaller ­vessels which struggle against the Daning He’s strong currents. The exquisite scenery, still impressive despite the rise in water levels, is regarded by many as the highlight of the cruise. At one point it is possible to spot wooden coffins tucked into a tiny ledge high up on a mountain. These coffins are said to belong to the Ba people, a lost culture from the Bronze Age that was absorbed by the Qin dynasty. The Ba placed the coffins containing their dead in tiny crevices on remote mountain tops.

Back on the Yangzi, the 45km (28-mile) long Witches’ Gorge (Wu Xia) is ­relatively calm despite its name. The gorge, surrounded by 12 vertiginous peaks, is steeped in legend; in this case, troublesome dragons have been turned to stone by the ­goddess Yaoji.

The last, longest, and traditionally the most dangerous of the Three Gorges stretches for 66km (41 miles) and is itself made up of several smaller gorges. The peculiar shape of the Horse-Lung and Ox-Liver Gorge (Niugan Mafei Xia) lent it its exotic name. Behind this is the 120-metre (400ft) long abyss of Blue Clif (Qingtan). From the south, the river is overlooked by Yellow Hill Temple (Huangling Miao), whose main hall dates back to the Han dynasty.

The Three Gorges Dam is located at Sandouping, a 10km (6-mile) stretch in the centre of Xiling Gorge, 35km (20 miles) west of Yichang. Most cruise boats will stop here to allow passengers to take in the immensity of the construction from the viewing platform. Beyond the dam, boats enter an enormous lock.

Yichang is now a large and crowded city, as many people from the surrounding areas who were displaced by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam have relocated here. A fast highway now connects it with Wuhan, and few cruise boats and passenger ferries continue downstream from here.

Chongqing

The vast city of Chongqing is the launching point for Yangzi cruises, but more notably in recent years it has earned itself the dubious distinction of having become the world’s most populous municipality. Development is taking place at such a rapid pace that it is said that Chongqing is the fastest-growing city in the world. The actual population of the municipal area is disputed (anywhere between 4 and 10 million), though it is thought to be growing at an average of around 1,400 people a day, and in 2005 government statistics put the population of the municipality at just over 31 million.

The city sits at the confluence of two rivers, where the Jialing joins the Yangzi, a strategic location that has always guaranteed its place as an important trading centre. The location of the original core of Chongqing, on a rocky promontory hugging the river, is rare among Chinese cities; the steepness of its streets means there are no ­bicycles (when students from Chongqing make it to university elsewhere in China, they have to learn how to cycle, much to the amusement of fellow undergraduates).

During World War II and the Japanese occupation of large parts of the country, the Nationalist government under ­Chiang Kaishek retreated to Chongqing (then known in the West as Chungking) and made it their capital. Provincial status resumed after the war, although the city grew into an industrial powerhouse in the early communist years. The recent rapid development has led to the almost wholesale destruction of the architecture in the old city centre that was once one of the smoggy city’s few redeeming qual­ities, and today it is indistinguishable from any other modern Chinese city.

The area around Liberation Square (Jiefang Bei) is the heart of the city, and although much has been transformed into a pedestrian shopping centre, there are still some narrow, winding backstreets to explore. Steep steps lead from the tip of the peninsula down to the river banks, studded with moorings. At the tip of the peninsula is a small pavilion, Chaotianmen. The flood level is marked here as a reminder of the great flood of 1982, which covered a large area and caused great devastation. Ferries arrive and depart from the busy Chaotianmen docks.

One sight of interest is the Stilwell Museum (Shidiwei Jiangjun Jiuju), housed in the former residence of General Joseph Stilwell, Commander-in-Chief of the US forces in China and Burma during World War II. On (increasingly rare) clear evenings there are good views across the city from Pipa Shan.

Wuhan

The industrial and commercial city of Wuhan, roughly halfway between Chongqing and Shanghai at the confluence of the Chang and Han rivers, is a major entrepôt through which many visitors to central China are likely to pass. A massive metropolis with more than 9 million inhabitants, Wuhan is actually an amalgam of three formerly distinct settlements: Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang, all now municipalities in their own right, each spilling out from the banks of the rivers that divide them. Taking advantage of their privileged positions along the Chang Jiang as well as major rail and road networks, the cities together comprise one of the country’s most important economic centres. Wuhan is also historically significant, perhaps most noteworthy for being the linchpin of the 1911 revolution that eventually brought down China’s last imperial dynasty.

Of the three modern districts, Hankou on the Yangzi's northwest bank and north of the Han Jiang – is the most convenient for tourists, with efficient transport, abundant accommodation and a good variety of eating and nightlife options. It also has the greatest concentration of visible history, with an entire quarter of well-preserved colonial European architecture emanating from the waterfront – grandiose remnants of its role as a treaty port in the latter half of the nineteenth century.  

Wuchang, southeast of the Yangzi and accessible via the Great Chang Jiang Bridge or regular public ferries from Hankou, was an ancient port and administrative centre and, as such, has several historic sights. Most prominent of these is the 50-metre (164ft) Yellow Crane Tower (Huanghe Lou), the grandest of the many towers along the Chang Jiang. Overlooking the city, the tower – which can be climbed via internal staircases to the top floor – commands sweeping views of the river and its urban environs. The original tower was first built in AD 223, but after it burnt to the ground in 1884 a new one was constructed on a larger scale a few hundred metres away. .

On Wuchang’s far eastern fringe is East Lake (Dong Hu), an expansive watery network situated within a huge park which makes for a pleasant retreat from Wuhan’s suffocating summer heat. Nearby to the north is the Hubei Provincial Museum (Hubei Sheng Bowuguan, dedicated primarily to antiquities excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi, who died in 433 BC during the Warring States Period. The exhibition is impressive and informative, with an extensive collection of well-­preserved funerary objects displayed in an intuitive fashion and bolstered by English-language ­multimedia presentations.

In Wuhan’s third district, Hanyang on the northwest bank of the Yangzi and south of the Han River, is the Guiyuan Si, the city’s biggest Buddhist monastery and a magnet for worshippers and tourists alike. To Chinese Buddhists, the monastery is renowned for preserving a complete, 7,000-volume set of ancient scriptures in its Sutra Collection Pavilion, which contains a graceful statue of the Sakyamuni Buddha carved in a Southeast Asian style from a single piece of Burmese white jade. More visually striking is the Hall of Arhats, built in 1850 and holding an intriguing collection of 500 life-sized clay sculptures of arhats, or pupils of Buddha, each with his own persona and in a different pose.