Wuhan - Wuchang

Hubei - Jingzhou - Shiyan - Wuhan - Yichang

Wuchang, on the right bank of the Yangtze River, is historically the most important of the 3 districts. The walled capital of Wu during the Three Kingdoms period, Tang rulers later made the city a major port which, under the Mongols, became the administrative center of a vast region covering present-day Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces.

Until 1911, however, the city had sidestepped the mainstream of Chinese history, but on October 10 that year a bomb exploded prematurely at the headquarters of a revolutionary group planning to protest against the politics behind the construction of the Hankou-Chongqing rail-line. The police moved in and a pitched battle ensued, starting the nationwide rebellion which toppled the Qing dynasty and saw the formation of a republican government under Sun Yatsen in Nanjing the following year.

Being a provincial political center, Wuchang has few shops, but the East Lake Park, a natural expanse of greenery and water, is a good place to visit.