Wowed by Wuhan!

Early this year it seemed that I would have a chance to visit China. Wuhan in China! Let us be honest. The name Wuhan does not get the kind of excitement like Beijing or Shanghai. And the name China does not give the same excitement as Japan or Korea. 

Finally, I took the trip in late November. It was my first time to China. I consider myself as a logical person, the kind of person who does not get affected by propaganda! Boy, I was wrong. In this blog, I shall pen down some of the positive and not-so-positive experiences I have been having in Wuhan. Before I came, my ex-student turned close friend Naadir (who had spent one whole year in China) was extremely excited for me! He will always tell me "sir (he wont give up addressing me as "sir"),  I am so excited that you are finally going to China!". I just could not understand why...till I came!

Landing and Arrival: The behaviour of immigration officers at your port of entry can tell a lot about the people and the land. Cape Town and Bangkok have always given me the best experiences. In spite of working all day, the African officers in Cape Town will always try to crack a joke to make you smile! Wuhan was different and was pleasant. As soon as I started filling my entry form an officer approached me and started asking me questions and taking notes. My heart beat increased. But contrary to my experience in the USA and (once) in Germany, this officer started chatting with me and then started filling my form in Chinese to help me out! It was quick and easy.

Finding cash and SIM card: This was a huge challenge. If you do not have AliPay or WeChat then you would be severely challenged. In all the countries I have visited so far there would be agents in the airport to sell you SIM cards and to exchange cash for you. Not in Wuhan. And no ATM machine accepts MasterCard or VISA cards! These two companies have made travel so seamless. Not in China! It took me a while to appreciate what I was experiencing. A whole country has been working pretty well without depending on these banking giants. #respect ! Oh well, it worked out OK. I could get AliPay and now a days AliPay allows you to link your foreign credit card. So it was all good at the end. 

The University: I have seen pictures of Chinese universities. Big buildings and big roads. I was up for a surprise here as well. Universities in China, at least in Wuhan, are full of trees and gardens! Of course they have nice buildings with cool architectures. But, the amount of forested lands they have been able to maintain is mind blowing. In my experience, I have seen such prevalence of forests only in UC Berkeley. 

The Museums: Being a provincial capital, Wuhan is home to a lot of museums. I started with the Museum of Wuchang Uprising. Till that time I never knew how important Wuhan is Chinese history. It was in Wuhan where the famous Xinhai Revolution started that ended the last imperial dynasty of China and started the first Chinese republic led by the legendary Sun Yat-Sun. Then, I visited the new Qintai art museum whose architecture was more impressive than the art collection it had. Not that the art collection was bad; just that the architecture was next level. Later, I visited Hubei Provincial Museum which is a massive building with an impressive architecture. It had a lot of collections from the history of Hubei. And, of course anything and any place in China would have a history of at least 3000 years. I was really pleased to see it full of visitors and school-kids. I did not have time to visit many more museums though the choice was literally endless. Every museum is huge and impressive and there is NO entry fees (even for foreigners)! This is how museums should be, free to the public. It is a crime to charge entry fees to museums maintained by public money.

Wuchang Uprising Memorial

Qintai Art Museum Building (from top)

Hubei Provincial Museum

City Planning and Nature: I wont lie. Before visiting China I had an impression that Chinese cities would be like Dubai, full of concrete jungles. And I was wrong. At least Wuhan kept reminding me of Sweden. The more I explore the city the more I respect the city planners who designed this city of 12 million people while still making sure that no where in the city is too far from forests. There are many many massive gardens. When I was in Sweden, I came to know from the municipality officers that they found a substantial reduction in air pollution if there is a row of trees between roads and buildings. They try to do that in most new developments in Sweden. I found that in most streets in Wuhan. I visited the massive botanical garden they have which can easily take one a good six hours to visit. Apparently, they follow the Feng Shui guidelines to city planning. Traditionally they used to do this. During early phases of modernisation these guidelines were not followed causing in high levels of pollution, congestion and flooding. I was told that in the modern times they are trying to follow Feng Shui guidelines again so as to have a sustainable city co-existing with nature.

I am crazy for watching moonrises on full moon evenings. I was lucky to have full moon on one of these days. I randomly tried to find a place from where I can watch the moonrise. Then I took the bus to that "spot". The spot was actually a bridge in one of the lakes here. Surrounding it was a forest which took me 40 minutes to walk through! The view was breathtaking. But I was really impressed by the fact that the city government has taken all the pain to build the forest, the bridge and many such places where people can come for "FREE", be in nature and enjoy. 

Another thing I was amazed about was the preservation of wet-lands. This is a major problem in Indian cities. Greedy developers and corrupt governments have made sure that all the wet-lands in Indian cities have more or less disappeared. The result is urban floods as soon as monsoon starts. My own city Bhubaneswar suffers acutely from this. When I was a kid the city had many wet-lands. Now it has none! When I was a kid rain water would disappear within minutes. Now even a one hour rain will cause floods in many suburbs. In Wuhan they have made sure to retain a lot of the wet lands. 

And of course, did I tell about the public transport? It works! Every time things were on time (unlike Germany!). The frequency was good enough to make you not take a cab. Trains were on time and very fast. The (economy) seats in the trains had deeper pushback than economy flights! Oh, its all very cheap. A ride in metro to anywhere will cost you 25 Cents (USD). My train ride (220km) costed me 10 USD and took me 1 hour and 15 minutes!

Rows of trees between road and buildings.

Road inside the forest leading to my "spot"!

Sunset from my "spot"!

Wetlands within the city.

The People: As I mentioned above the immigration officers dealing with me were extremely courteous and efficient. I faced this many times in my short stay. For example when I arrived at the Hubei Provincial Museum, I realised that it needs pre-booking using WeChat and I had no WeChat! The security saw my passport and was all excited that I am from India. She used her WeChat to book me in! I was in Jingzhou and wanted chicken fired rice. The lady managing the small eatery asked me many questions. When she knew that I am from India and am travelling alone (poor me!) she started giving me free tea and then offered me free stinky tofu! I have been genuinely touched by all the kindness I have got from complete strangers. 

Stinky tofu offered by the kind eatery owner.

I am still processing my experiences in China. At least in the urban areas and the semi-urban places I have been to, things are better off than many European cities. I am sure there might be issues and I am sure there are geo-political things I am not aware of or things I have not been exposed to. But, who is perfect? Just a few weeks ago the Australians voted, in a referendum, against giving voice to the aboriginal population. But, I am not going to go political in this blog. All I wanted to say is that as a visitor, that too from India, I experienced tremendous amount of kindness. What I witnessed are perfectly working infrastructures and governments which take great care of what they are supposed to do. It is definitely a country to visit. However, be warned that there are just too many things to witness. You need at least a month to even touch the tip of the iceberg that is China.

PS: By the way, the city of Wuhan is a research mega-power! It has 35 higher educational and research institutes including two universities ranking within the top 200 in the world!