四海为家

The year and the decade have come to a close, and the thing to do at times likes this is to compile a top ten list (or 24 top 10 lists, if you want to be as cool as China Daily). Not wanting to be left off the bandwagon, I’ve put together my own list — my top ten reasons for why I love Wuhan.

“Ten reasons for liking Wuhan — can you even list one?” So the incredulous have asked. Wuhan gets a bad rap, and even the locals seem to have learned to stay quiet when people from other provinces complain about the sweltering summers / freezing winters in unheated buildings / traffic nightmare / hot-tempered inhabitants. I have to admit, it is a little bit annoying to have to import my cocoa from Shanghai. But the city has its charms, and many of us have come here for what was originally supposed to be six months, or a year, and have ended up staying for longer.

Counting down from 10, here are a few of my favorite things about this sprawling industrial city in the heart of China:

10. Central location. Wuhan bills itself as the transportation hub of China — it’s a convenient overnight train ride away from Beijing to the north, Shanghai to the east, Chengdu to the west and Guangzhou to the south. With the new high speed train to Shanghai and ultra-high speed train to Guangzhou, those distances feel even shorter. To be fair, distances in China are so huge that even with a central location, it still takes forever to get anywhere, which is why this reason barely makes my list… but Wuhan is nonetheless a relatively convenient base for exploring other parts of China, and deserves a point for that.

9. Bus network. The traffic situation on the whole would have to be a minus for Wuhan — it takes hours to get from one side of the city to the other, and you generally have to budget twice as long as you should need to get anywhere that might be affected by a sudden surprise traffic jam — but the reach of the bus network is actually pretty good. It’s very extensive, easy to use (especially if you use googlemaps to plan your trip), and if you get on the bus at the beginning of the bus route and get a seat, it’s relatively comfortable. Plus, it’s cool to be able to take a bus across the Yangtze River. Now all they need to do is get rid of some of the cars and put in more buses, to get rid of that packed-like-sardines in a traffic jam quality the bus rides so often take on…

8. Springtime in Wuhan. It may only last for two weeks, but for that short, wonderful period when you’re not shivering in the freezing cold or melting away in the blistering heat, Wuhan is beautifully covered in a sea of cherry blossom trees and photo ops.

7. Autumn in Wuhan. Like its springtime counterpart, autumn in Wuhan is short but wonderful (this year it seemed like it was a little bit longer than the spring, so I’m putting it one step up on the list). The characteristic flower for autumn is the sweet osmanthus (桂花, of 桂林 — Guilin — fame), and although it’s visually much less striking than the cherry blossom, I highly recommend walking around the Wuda campus to smell its fragrance while it’s in bloom.

6. Modern city. While it’s not a particularly international city, Wuhan is still a very big, modern city, and has all of the conveniences that usually come with a modern city — including Starbucks, McDonalds, and some (relatively basic) import foods. It’s no Shanghai, but in terms of facilities and products available, it’s still a comfortable place to live.

5. Lack of foreigners. Although it’s a huge, modern city, Wuhan has relatively few foreigners. Maybe the climate scares people away. The small expat population has its drawbacks — like an accompanying lack of things that foreigners like, like foreign food — but it also comes with advantages. The biggest, in my opinion, is opportunities for language learning (see below) — since there aren’t that many of us, people haven’t gotten tired of talking to us yet. There are also lots of part-time and full-time teaching jobs available for the foreigners who do make their way here, and not having restaurants, shops and a sketchy expat scene to burn our money in can be a good thing when trying to stay on a budget.

4. Food. As a foreigner who hasn’t yet learned to distinguish between the subtle differences in the cuisines of each province in China, I think Wuhan food is absolutely delicious — it seems like the perfect mix of all of the different regional foods. It’s spicy (influenced by Sichuan and Hunan cuisines), but not too spicy. There’s sweet food, but it’s not too sweet. Wuhan is also a big city with food from all over the country. The few attempts at Western food are generally heavily adapted for Chinese tastes and best avoided, and Western ingredients can be hard to find, but there’s lots of delicious Chinese food from all over the country, and restaurants are generally cheap and plentiful.

3. Cost of living. Obviously more expensive than the countryside, but much cheaper than Beijing and Shanghai. Ideal for those who are spending savings from abroad, or for anyone on a fixed-sum scholarship. Money goes a long way here, which is not to be underestimated.

2. Language learning. The local language, Wuhanese, supposedly belongs to the same language family as Mandarin, but it’s pretty different from standard Mandarin pronunciation and vocabulary. Nonetheless, Wuhan is a great place to study Mandarin. So great, in fact, that I put this at number of 2 on my list of why Wuhan is amazing. There are tons of universities, so there are lots of Mandarin-speaking students from all over the country, and since it’s a transportation hub and lots of people from all over China pass through for short or long stays, pretty much everyone speaks relatively good Mandarin. At the same time, it’s not a very international city, and English-speakers are few and far between, so not only are there opportunities to practice Mandarin, it’s more or less essential for getting around the city. Taking Chinese classes is relatively affordable, and most importantly, the people who live here are incredibly friendly and helpful to language learners.

1. The people. Cheesy as it may be, number 1 on a Wuhan top ten list has to be the people here. Whether it’s Wuhan locals or people from other provinces, once people have gotten over their initial surprise that you would want to live in Wuhan, everyone is incredibly friendly and welcoming. One friend said that Wuhan is sort of like the Midwest of China — just like in the American Midwest, people are friendly and down-to-earth. They smile patiently as you stumble over your first attempts to communicate in Chinese, they walk you to the building you’re looking for when you’re lost (whether or not they actually know which building it is), and they open their homes to you and teach you about Chinese culture. Basically, they make you feel at home. That’s my Wuhan number 1.

Happy New Year!