How to Come to Wuhan?
TUG 2005 International Typesetting Conference will be held
in Wuhan, which is the capital city of Hubei province. In the history, Wuhan is
famous for the rebellion and revolution in 1911, which had thrown away the conquer of
the Qing Dynasty, thus finalized the feudalism ran in China for more than
2,000 years.
Wuhan is a renowned metropolis located in central China which boasts
of a centuries-ling history. Situated on the eastern edge of Jianghan
plain where the Yangtze River and Han River collide and the two rivers
cut the city into three: Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang, shaping a unique
tripod city arrangement. Wuhan enjoys a typical semitropical wet monsoon
climate, where the four seasons are very distinctive. Since Wuhan's summer
is extremely hot and long, the city is nicknamed "The Stove", or "Wuhot".
Archaeologists can trace the genealogy of Wuhan to the relics of
Shang Dynasty (16 B.C.-11 B.C.) which was excavated some five kilometers
away from the city center. Wuhan had already turned into a civilized
society as far back as 3,500 years ago and by the Nan Dynasty (A.D.420-589),
the city had become a famous commercial port. In the Tang & Song Dynasties
(A.D.618-1279), it had developed into a prosperous business center with
a sophisticated water transportation network. The city was later recognized
as one of the "Four Noted Towns of the Nation" and the trading center
for central China.
One verse best describes Wuhan of that time. "Sails and masts the line
up for thousands of meters, and millions of houses lit up for all night
long". The city was a very busy place and even at that early time, the
waterways from Wuhan ran to Sichuan, Guizhou,Henan, Shanxi, Hunan, Jiangxi,
Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces. In modern times as a commercial port opening
to the outside world, Wuhan consecutively became a concession of Britain,
Russia, France, Germany, and Japan, where a dozen of countries later set
up consulates. After the Westernization Movement took place in 1860's,
modern industry and education began thriving in Wuhan, whose waterways
extended directly to many overseas countries and the city then gradually
grew into a prosperous industrial and commercial venue.
In the 20th Century, Wuhan became increasingly influential. As the apex
of the Revolution of 1911, the city was at the heart of both the National
Revolution and the center of the National Movement of Resisting Japan and
Saving the Nation.
Thus being undoubtedly a revolutionist city, politically Wuhan
was ground zero. Today Wuhan has grown into its current economic,
financial, trading, science, education and information center
within Middle China.
Wuhan is in the hinterland of China, it's the population as
the 4th largest one in China after Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin,
when the Chongqing city was expanded several years ago, it is now the 5th largest
Chinese city. Wuhan has three towns, called Hankou, Wuchang,
and HanYang. They are split by the Changjiang River and Han River. Changjiang River
is the 3rd longest river in the world (its water volume is also the 3rd),
and Han River is its largest branch. The conference site is near the
East Lake, in Wuchang.
Due to the unique position in the central China, the distances from
Wuhan to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Xi'An, Chengdu are
almost the same. There are several ways for you to come to Wuhan.
If you depart from Europe...
Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong are all the available
ports reachable from the major airports in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna,
Milan, ... all these airports have the traffic connections
to these Chinese cities. And all these Chinese cities are
connected to Wuhan.
Once you embarked in China, you can take a flight
or by railway to Wuhan. Note that Wuhan is the hub in
the hinterland of China, the traffic is easy. You can
travel to Wuhan by railway or by air (depends on your budget).
The tricky issue is that Wuhan had two airports! One is the
new-built Wuhan TianHe Airport (the code is "WUH"), this is tne
one you should arrive in! . Another is located in the
suburb of HanKou, which is now obsolete. When you arrive
in TianHe airport, please try to figure out the TUG2005 flag we placed
there, and we should have the volunteers there waiting for you,
they will lead you to the bus, or bring you to the hotel (if we
have enough volunteers available).
Once you can not find the flag or our volunteers (if you
were arrive in the night too late, for example), then you can take the
shuttle bus to the end station into the city, and we will find you
in the end stop and pick you up from there. In any case, please
write us your flight number and arriving date, so that we can
welcome you at the airport.
By train, it is a night of travel, Chinese train system
has accelerated for times in the past three years, and it
runs at 120-160KM/H, also the wagons are new-made and the
style is more like the European ones. It is comfortable.
As mentioned above, Wuhan is a city consists of three small towns
(HanKou, HanYang, WuChang), split by two rivers, you have
take a look to the maps published at
http://www.rons.net.cn/tug2005/maps.html.
From Beijing ...
From Beijing to Wuhan by train is quite easy, it is just over a
night for 10 hours. (The railway line numbered Z3, departed
from Beijing at 20:42, and arrive in HanKou station at
06:52 in the second day, the distance is 1205KM. The ticket
price is around 28 Euro.
if you take air, the flight from Beijing to Wuhan is
about 100 minutes, there are 6-8 flights everyday. The price
is around 50-80 Euro, depends on which airline you take. So it is
also quite easy. We evaluate this route is the best one for you
travel.
From Hong Kong ...
If you prefer by air when you arrive in Hong Kong,
please don't book the air ticket from the Hong Kong
to Wuhan directly if your budget is tough.
There is direct flight from Hong Kong to Wuhan, but it
is regarded as an international route, and the ticket
price is sometimes three times expensive than
the domestic airlines for nearly the same Euclidian distance.
The economic way is to travel to Shenzhen's airport, you
can go to the shuttle bus station from the Shenzhen railway station by taxi
(which is not very far from there), then
take the shuttle bus to the Shenzhen airport.
You could fly from an European airport to Hong Kong, and then
take a train to Shenzhen via the Hong Kong's subway system.
Note that English did a terrible municipal planning before
they left HK, the Hong Kong's new airport is in the sea island
and very far from the Hong Kong city center, by taxi it
will cost about 250-300 HKD (depends up on the traffic time).
So the cheap way is to take the shuttle bus, or by the subway.
You should go to Kowloon Tong station, and switch to
the train to Shenzhen from there.
You need to take-off in the station in the town "WuChang",
which is closer to the TUG2005 conference site and your hotel.
There is another railway station in HanKou, if you
arrive from Beijing, then you should *not* take-off there,
keep in mind to take off in WuChang station can save your
traffic, which is better.
From Shanghai ...
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If you arrive in Shanghai, note that it has two airports, one
is New, located in the new developed district, PuDong, which is also far from
Shanghai's downtown. You probably will land there if you take
the international airlines, as the old airport is smaller. But
please check with your airline company to clarify and make sure
which airport you will land in.
If you can land in the old "HongQiao" airport, which is quite
close to the Shanghai downtown (about 30 minutes by bus), and it is also easier to
switch to the Shanghai railway station. There is a shuttle bus
from the PuDong Airport to the HongQiao Airport,
and vice versa. It is just one-stop bus (no station in-between, if you
want to take off in the way to see the exciting Shanghai, you should take
other bus lines). It costs RMB30.00 a person (ca 3 Euro), cross
the city from the east to the west, and takes about 2 hours. When
you arrive at HongQiao Airport, you can take the domestic flight
Shanghai to Wuhan.
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To summarize up, the recommended way is to Beijing,
and then fly from Beijing to Wuhan. You need to check
the airline in advance, as I know, many students will
travel from China to Britain to start a new semester,
your back way may be problematic.
If you are from Russia, or CIS countries...
After USSR, Russia is still the largest country in the
world, the largest neighbor of China which the long boundary
line. If you are from the west part of Russia, then take the flight from
Moscow to Beijing, then take the flight or train to Wuhan.
If you are from the far east area of Russia, then you are
suggested to fly to Harbin, and make the transit from Harbin
to Wuhan by air.
If you are from the CIS countries, e.g. the Kazakhstan,
then the best way would be fly to Urumqi, and make the
transit from Urumqi to Wuhan by air.
If you are from USA or Canada, or South America...
Please read the info given above. To come from America to Wuhan is
almost the same to come from Europe to Wuhan, except your take-off
place is different.
If you are from Korea...
Seoul has flights to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hong Kong,
Guangzhou, so it is easy for you to come, just make one transit
and you can travel to Wuhan.
If you come from Japan...
There is a direct flight between Wuhan and , Japan, so
it is quite simple to come if you are from Japan.
If you are from Viet Nam...
Perhaps the easiest way is to travel to Nanning (the capital city
of GuangXi province) by train or by flight, then make the transit to
Wuhan from there. You can also fly to Guangzhou (the capital city of
Guangdong province, and make transit from there to Wuhan).
If you are from India...
Indian guest may consider three possible routes:
- Take the Silk Airline, they have the flight from Trivandrum
to Singapore, then from Singapore to Chengdu, and you can
make the transit there to Wuhan.
- If you are from the North of India, then you can fly to
Lhasa in Tibet, then make the transit to Wuhan from Lhasa. Please query
your local airlines for the time table, or ask Air China office in India.
- If you are from the west part of India, the possible way
is to fly to Beijing, and then take a flight or the train to Wuhan.
If you are from Africa...
One economic route is to travel to Dubai, UAE as the first stop, then
make the transit there to China. Many airlines, including Air China,
have the connection from Dubai to China. It is also possible to
take a flight to an airport in Europe and make the transit there, see
more explanation in the paragraph "If you are from Europe..." once you
find a connection to China.
If you are from Australia or New Zealand...
Both Air China and Australian airline have the direct flight to Beijing,
Shanghai, or Hong Kong, so when you embark in one of these Chinese cities,
you can make a transit to Wuhan, read also the info given in the paragraph
"if you are from Europe...".
Sites to see in Wuhan
There are three "must-see" scenic spots in Wuhan: Huanghe
(Yellow Crane) Pagoda, East Lake, and Guiyuan Temple, which are
often cited by the locals as the Two Courses and One Soup of
the city.
- Yellow Crane Pagoda
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Huanghe Pagoda stands upon Snake Mountain in Wuchang and is
famed for its "unrivaled scenery under the heaven". The tower,
together with Yueyang Tower in Hunan Province and Tengwang Tower
in Jiangxi Province, are called The Three Famous Towers South of
Yangtze River.
The Huanghe Tower was originally built in A.D. 223 during
the Three Kingdoms Period. Millions of writers left countless
literature works after visiting the tower and the most famous
of all was the masterpiece of Cui Hao (Tang Dynasty) which
reads: "Once gone, the yellow crane will never on Earth alight,
only white clouds still float in vain from year to year." These
poems further enhanced the regal nature of the tower.
The logo of the conference borrowed the idea from the sagas,
but used it reversively.
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- East-Lake
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The East Lake is six times as large as the West Lake in
Hangzhou. The banks of the lake zigzag like a woman with a
gracefully twisted body. The Millstone Mountain lies on the
southern bank of East Lake, with a length of about 2,200 m
and a width of about 500 m. The mountain spawned six peaks
and with the highest one resembling a millstone, the mountain wa
s given this name.
Centered around Millstone Mountain, a Chu (the old name for
Hubei Province) City was built and spanned some 5 sq. km. Scenic
spots in Chu City such as the City Gate, Chu Market, Chu
Observatory, and Chuci (an ancient Chinese literary style in
this area) Pavilion, were all designed to reflect the unique
Chu culture. East Lake Park is encompassed by water in three
directions and the six peaks link with each other. Pine, laurel
and plum trees grow with lush abundance on top of the mountains.
Famous with this extradianry beauty, the Park attracts tourists
from far and wide.
The Conference will be held in the hotel near the East lake!
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- GuiYuan Temple
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Guiyuan Temple is a famous Buddhist temple with a history
of more than 300 years. The temple's construction, Buddhist
scriptures and scores of statues have been kept intact throughout
the years. Featuring 500 gold arhat figures, the Guiyuan Temple
has garnered its own level of media notoriety throughout the globe.
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Apart from these time-honoured attractions, some new scenic
spots can be found in Wuhan as well including the White-Flag
Dolphin Aquarium, Wildlife Park, Chibi Battle Gallery and the
bustling Zhongshan Street.
We'll also organize the participants to visit Wudang Mountain,
where it is the birthplace of Taoism, for more details, please
visit this page.
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