Our year end visit to Wuhan brought us to three locations along the Yangtze river: Wuchang Wan, Yellow Crane Tower, and the Emerald Lake on Yangtze River at Huangshi, Hubei.
Wuchang Wan, a riverbank park, is located between the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge and Yingwu Zhou River Bridge. The river narrows here, has a small kink, and flows from southwest to northeast before turning back.
It was a beautiful, crisply cold, sunny day when we got there. What struck us first was the remarkable resemblance between The Ying Wu Zhou Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge: both are red and both are suspension bridge. Despite the dry season for the river, the water level was low, it still flew very fast. The fast flow is due to the fact that the river narrows a lot from 1.89km wide near Ying Wu Zhou Bridge to 1.09km wide at Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge in 1.95km flow distance.
Along the river bank, the willow trees still had green leaves, long tailed shrikes were chirping.
Turning the corner of the kink, the double deck Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, upper deck road way, lower deck railway, appeared. The bridge is the first bridge ever built over the great river. It also carries numerous memories for me, I travelled numerous times on it, by train or by bus: visiting grandpa in northern Hubei countryside, going to graduate school at Beijing, and visiting relatives in the city.
 |
| Ying Wu Zhou Bridge |
 |
| Green leaves on Willow trees |
 |
| A long tailed shrike on a bare tree branch |
 |
| Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge - the first bridge built over the river |
The second place we visited by Yangtze river was the Yellow Crane Tower.
This beautiful tower has cultural and religious significance but it is not the original ancient namesake. The ancient tower was destroyed and rebuilt twelve times by warfare or fire according to Wikipedia.
The last time we visited the Tower was long time ago in 1999. The tower remains the same, but its surroundings have changed a lot for the better, with sculptures, Paifangs, gardens, pounds... The area is now a large park on the Snake Hill. It was a very pleasant stroll through the park, and to the top floor of the Tower.
 |
| The Yellow Crane Tower |
 |
| This modern mural is based on ancient poem - Yellow Crane Flying away |
 |
| view of Turtle Hill with TV tower across the Yangtze River from Yellow Crane Tower |
 |
| The garden in the park still had brilliant foliage |
 |
| The newly built millennium bell |
 |
| Paifang and Temples near the Tower |
 |
| Park Gate |
The third place we visited was a seasonal natural wonder - the Emerald lake on the Yangtze River bed during winter dry season.
It is not a permanent lake, but the shallow, emerald-green and turquoise water pools that naturally form on the sandbars along the Yangtze River in Guniuzhou Village, Hekou Town, Huangshi City, during the dry season each year (approximately November to March of the following year) when the water level lowers. The lakes are named for their jade-like clarity and gem-like colors.
It was the first time we heard about this lake, a great place to enjoy nature, and appreciate the force of nature.
Note
1. Poem that made the Yellow Crane Tower well known
Yellow Crane Tower was made famous by an 8th-century poem written by
Cui Hao, titled "Yellow Crane Tower" (黃鶴樓). The original text of the poem is shown below:
昔人已乘黃鶴去， 此地空餘黃鶴樓。
黃鶴一去不復返， 白雲千載空悠悠。
晴川歷歷漢陽樹， 芳草萋萋鸚鵡洲。
日暮鄉關何處是， 煙波江上使人愁。
2. More about the Emerald lake on the bed of Yangtze river: Earlier in November 2025, migrating water fowls stopped by ( http://www.cnhubei.com/cmdetail/2020636)
