Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies in the eastern Jianghan Plain at the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers. Arising out of the conglomeration of three cities, Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang, Wuhan is known as "the nine provinces' leading thoroughfare"; it is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and expressways passing through the city. Because of its key role in domestic transportation, Wuhan was sometimes referred to as the "Chicago of China. It is recognized as the political, economic, financial, cultural, educational and transportation center of central China. The city of Wuhan, first termed as such in 1927, has a population of 10,020,000 people (as of 2011), with about 6,434,373 residents in its urban area.

Wuhan's climate is humid subtropical with abundant rainfall and four distinctive seasons. Wuhan is known for its oppressively humid summers, when dewpoints can often reach 26 °C (79 °F) or more. Because of its hot summer weather, Wuhan is commonly known as one of the Three Furnaces of China, along with Nanjing and Chongqing. Spring and autumn are generally mild, while winter is cool with occasional snow. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from 3.7 °C (38.7 °F) in January to 28.7 °C (83.7 °F) in July. Annual precipitation totals 1,269 millimetres (50.0 in), mainly from May to July; the annual mean temperature is 16.63 °C (61.9 °F), the frost-free period lasts 211 to 272 days and annual sunlight duration is 1810 to 2100 hours. Extreme temperatures have ranged from −18.1 °C (−1 °F) to 42.0 °C (108 °F)

Wuhan has seven bridges and one tunnel across the Yangtze River. The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, also called the First Bridge, was built over the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) in 1957, carrying the railroad directly across the river between Snake Hill (on the left in the picture below) and Turtle Hill.

Wuchang has the largest lake within a city in China, the East Lake, as well as the South Lake. The east lake in Wuhan is 6 times the size of the west lake in Hangzhou. The total area is more than 80 km² (31 sq mi) of which the lake is covering an area of 33 km² (13 sq mi). In the spring time the shores of East Lake became a garden of flowers with the Mei blossoms as the king and the Cherry Blossom as the queen among the species. Another famous flower is the lotus. The lake has a long history and especially the Chu Kingdom is well represented around East Lake. At East Lake you find fascinating gardens like the Mei Blossom Garden, Forrest of the Birds, Cheery Blossom Garden and monuments from ancient times, beautiful hills and green nature. Moreover, in the Moshan Botanic Garden there are all possible types of plum blossoms, as well as lotus flowers.

Wuhan is one of the three scientific and education centers of China, along with Beijing and Shanghai. It had the largest number of enrolled college students in the world in 2011.The city of Wuhan has 85 higher education institutions such as Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Wuhan ranks third in China in scientific and education strength. It contains three national development zones and four scientific and technologic development parks, as well as numerous enterprise incubators, over 350 research institutes, 1470 hi-tech enterprises, and over 400,000 experts and technicians. Wuhan boasts eight national colleges and universities^[37] among its 36 colleges and universities.

Please see also: Wuhan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia