Hot Summer in Wuhan

7 Aug – 21 Aug 2024

We made a pit stop at Shennongjia National Park (神農架), the locals’ favourite summer hideaway spot. By chance, we got into the national park in late afternoon free of charge as the staff were already off duty. We spent two nights in the mountains. We watched stars at night and found ourselves in the midst of beautiful morning fog when we got up.

2024 was a year of celebrating friendships as we saw many friends. At the beginning of the year, two friends came to see us in Yunnan. This time we went to Wuhan to meet up with our friends Lisa and Steffen whom we have known since our Shanghai days back in 2011. They had relocated to Munich over ten years ago but we tried to meet up every year. Lisa is from Wuhan and she brings her daughters Emily and Olivia to visit her parents each summer.

It’s over 3,000m at the top of Shennonjia – the weather was cool and refreshing!

Shennongjia protects the largest primary forest in central China and is a haven for many rare animals like the golden snub nosed monkeys (金絲猴)

Wuhan is the capital city of Hubei and ranked among the four hottest places in summer. It became infamous five years ago when the Covid virus first broke out there. With Han River (漢江) and Yangtze River running throughout the city, Wuhan was historically a busy port city for commerce and trading. It is of immense economical significance due to its strategically central location between Beijing in the north and Guangzhou in the south.

Wuhan is in fact the conglomeration of three cities Hanyang (漢陽), Hankou (漢口) and Wuchang (武昌). In 1858, Hankou was opened to foreign trade under the Treaty of Tianjin and between 1861 and 1896 concessions were granted to British, French, German, Russian and Japanese interests. Hence, one can see a good mix of old European architectures across the city among new high rise buildings and shopping malls.

Old European styled building from the nineteenth century

Typical low-rise residential blocks in the older neighbourhood

We rented a two-bedroom apartment with Lisa and Steffen. It was next to a new and huge shopping mall which even has an indoor ski area. It was a smart choice as we could hide in the mall when the heat was simply too much. Each morning, Steffen and Lisa took the kids to summer school and then joined us later for breakfast or lunch.

I still remember the first time we met Emily – she was only six months old when Lisa and Steffen joined us in the Spanish island of windsurfing mecca, Fuerteventura. She was so calm and quiet that we never saw her cry. She’s eight now and the big sister of Olivia. We made the best of our apartment and had dinner there sometimes.

Metro station corridor is a good place to take a rest and get away from the intense summer sun.

Emily and Olivia love spending summer in China. It’s great that Lisa enrolled them to local school to experience the local way of life. Lisa said that their Putonghua improved each time they came back to Wuhan. Lisa would pick them up in the afternoon and we sometimes went to playground together and then had dinner.

This kind of mobile drink stall selling a variety of cold sweet drinks like sour plum tea and chrysanthemum tea is commonplace for people to quench thirst and cool down.

The kids love Daisy as they also have a cat back home. But Daisy is terrified of children as they are usually annoying and noisy. Daisy would hide in our bedroom when the kids were around. Olivia adores Daisy and would sneak into the room to look at Daisy. I warned her to keep a distance and one time Daisy hissed at her despite Olivia was super quiet.

Both Olivia and Daisy had a stern look in their eyes!

The minute the kids left the apartment, Daisy would emerge from our room. But once they were home, she escaped right into our room. This became part of the routine during our stay in Wuhan.

Having moved back to Germany for some years, Lisa couldn’t stress enough how convenient living in China is compared to life in Europe. Everything ranging from meals, drinks, groceries, medicine can be ordered via an app and couriered instantly. So, Lisa made the best of it and ordered coffee by courier each morning.

One time, Steffen ordered coffee without realizing that Lisa already placed order before she got out of bed. We ended up having seven coffees delivered to our home

Wuhan is famous for its breakfast culture. They take their breakfast very seriously and even have a special term for it – “guozao” (過早) meaning having breakfast. Lisa took us to where the locals have breakfast and it is more like a carbohydrate feast with a wide selection of dry and soup noodles, mini soup dumplings, buns, deep fried dough and sweet drinks.

We love eating with the locals. I was getting the noodles and Lisa went to get other snacks in the store next door.

Very crunch and tasty deep fried dough. You can see all kinds of deep fried food next to the woman.

Breakfast in Wuhan is tasty and super filling.

Hubei cuisine is milder than Sichuan food. They love white pepper and have all kinds of lotus root dishes including lotus root soup and deep-fried lotus root sticks sprinkled with sesame.

Yangzhou friend Niu Niu also joined us for a few days. Apart from exploring the old part of the city, one of our favourite activities of course was to check out coffee shops. Coffee culture in China has been booming in recent years and Wuhan is no exception. I admire how the mainland Chinese are so adventurous and eager to learn new things. The exceptionally high standard of many of these coffee shops is a prime example of how they excel in exploring new things.

Coffee and dessert is an essential afternoon ritual!

Got up before 6am to go for a ride around the East Lake.

The famous “East Lake” is humongous. It covers 88 sq. km and the largest urban lake in China

The restaurant front says “Si Si Hotel” – the locals call restaurant “hotel”

Had the popular lotus root pork bone soup.

As a historically important and first tier city, it has a good mix of old and new.

Time for a traditional cold herbal drink after getting all sweaty and hot

One time, we went to a pilates class with Lisa and Niu Niu. It was a tough session and I sweated like a pig. Kin was grunting and puffing so much that we tried our best not to giggle. But when the instructor finally started laughing, we all burst into laughter.

Using poker chips to select what you wanted for your salad.

Cycling is the best way to explore the city and avoid the traffic jam!

Two weeks with our friends just flew by and it was lovely to spend time with our old friends. Kin introduced Hayao Miyazaki’s (宮崎駿) animation movies to Emily and Olivia. They fell in love with Totoro and watched it twice. Now they watch it together with their friends in Munich.

Hot Summer in Wuhan

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