Hankou and Wuchang

Chang Jiang and Han River divided Wuhan into three parts: Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang, hence the name of WuHan. These three parts used to be separated cities, and the history of Wuhan as one city only started in the year of 1927.

From the beginning of the city to now, these three parts have their functional differences. Hankou was a treaty port before the World War Ⅱ, and now a commercial center. Hanyang is an industry region. Most of universities in Wuhan are situated in Wuchang, which makes it an educational town.

Jianghan Road in Hankou

The three parts share the same regional culture. They are like each other in almost every aspect. But if you touch the city, you can find some differences of them. Now I would like to tell an phenomenon from which we can see something interesting.

I was born and grew up in Hankou, and now I’m studying in Wuchang. In Hankou, except in classes, the only language I speak is Wuhan dialect, a dialect based on mandarin with a southern accent. but in Wuchang, standard mandarin is widely used. Even two Wuhanese may chat with mandarin sometimes.

The Gate of Wuhan University in Wuchang

Wuhan has the third largest number of universities in China (just behind Beijing and Shanghai), and in Wuchang lives hundreds of thousands of students from all over the country, some of whom have difficulties in understanding the Wuhan dialects. In Wuchang, we can hear mandarin mixed with all kinds of (sometimes strange) accent.

So it is. Hankou is more fashion and more civic, while in Wuchang,there's more of a culture immersion.

Guqin Tai, a Story of Friendship

Guqin Tai (古琴台) locates on the west of Gui Shan (龟山), and the south of Yue Hu (月湖). It's only a small place, but it never failed to attract visitors from all over the country. For most people, going there is mainly for a story of thousands of years ago.

Guqin is a kind of Chinese music instrument, and Guqin Tai is often translated as "Heptachord Terrace". The story was originally recorded in the book of Lie zi.

"Bo Ya was good at playing the qin. Zhong Ziqi was good at to listening to the qin. When Bo Ya's will was towards high mountains in his playing, Zhong Ziqi would say, 'How towering like Mount Tai!' When Bo Ya's will was towards flowing water in his playing, Zhong Ziqi would say, 'How vast are the rivers and oceans!' Whatever Bo Ya thought of Ziqi would never fail to understand. Bo Ya said, 'Amazing! Your heart and mines are the same!' When Ziqi died, Bo Ya broke the strings [of his qin] and vowed never to play [the qin] again. Thus, there was the melody of High Mountains Flowing Water."

(The translation is from Wikipedia. View more of the story in Wikipedia.)

Guqin Tai was first built in the Northern Song Dynasty, and then experienced destruction and reconstruction for many times. What we can see now was built after 1949.

This story shows China's traditional attitude towards friendship that friends should know each other by heart and there's a tacit mutual understanding between each other. But that kind of friendship is always a rare thing.