28 February 2014 The Last Day of My Month Long Trip

Today the only important thing for today was catching my train from Wuhan back to my city in Shandong province called Zibo 淄博. I went from Hankou train station 汉口站 to Zibo train station 淄博站.I look a train which left at 4:48 PM, and I arrived in Zibo the next day 01 March 2014 at about 9:54 AM. I luckily had a hard bed for the whole trip, so my train ride was quite enjoyable. I was a bit sad that my 1 month trip was finally over having travelled to Qingdao, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Zhuhai, Macau, and Wuhan, but I also was happy to be going back. I was also running out of money, so getting back to my city called Zibo was good.

27 February 2014 The Yellow Crane Tower and more (Part 1)

Today, I went to the Yellow Crane Tower 黄鹤楼, a museum, and various other places in Wuhan. Due to Mandarin being a tonal language, 黄鹤楼huáng hè sounds very similar to 黄河 huáng hé the Yellow River in China, so initially when someone told me about it in Chinese, I confused it with the Yellow River. Going to the Yellow Crane Tower cost 80 RMB. The Yellow Crane Tower is actually in a big complex with many things to see. I thought that the Yellow Crane Tower was interesting, but it had scaffolding all around it as it seemed to be under repair and maintenance which I thought was a little annoying. I walked up to the top of the Yellow Crane Tower and got to see good views of Wuhan. From the top of the Yellow Crane Tower, I could even see the Yangtze River a little bit. I found out that the Yellow Crane Tower had been destroyed several times in history, most recently during the Cultural Revolution under Mao Ze Dong 毛泽东, and the current one was rebuilt in 1981, which was a bit sad. You can read more about the Yellow Crane Tower here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Crane_Tower. Then, in the afternoon, I had 热干面 rè gān miàn a Wuhan speciality for noodles, which I really enjoyed. I went next to a museum of the 1911 revolution in China. The museum was called 武昌起义纪念馆 and its English name is Former Headquarters of Wuchang Uprising. In many ways, it was devoted to Sun Yat-sen 孙中山.The revolution of 1911 is what caused overthrew imperial rule in China. Today, it was raining the whole day, so I ended up cancelling walking across the bridge at the Yangtze river, but I did take pictures of the river from the Yellow Crane Tower. After finishing going to the museum, I decided to try to go to Baotong Temple 武汉宝通寺 and to take the Wuhan metro again. After arriving at the Baotong Temple metro station, it was already around 6 PM, so I decided to cancel going to the temple. I just walked around various places, and eventually ate dinner at a local inexpensive restaurant, and then went back to my hostel. The hostel that I stayed in was called the Wuhan Pathfinder International Youth Hostel. Included some pictures of the hostel as well.

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26 February 2014 Wuhan University and More (Part 1)

This was my first day of travelling in Wuhan. In the Morning, I had some 热干面 re gan mian, which is a famous food from Wuhan. I went to Wuhan University. I went to Wuhan University with 许文君and 陈俊颖 whose English name is Rain. Both people I had met in my hostel just the day before. There were a very nice sakura garden (樱花园) in Wuhan University. Later, Rain and I went to a museum in Wuhan named The Wuhan Museum. I was quite impressed by the museum. There were some pottery items and metal items that were several thousand years old which amazed me. After visiting the museum, Rain and I went and saw some buildings from times when various foreign countries had concessions (租界) here. During the day, Rain and I took the Wuhan subway. I walked along the Yangtze river for a bit with Rain, and then later in the day, Rain and I visited a night market called Jianghan Road (江汉路) . The night market was very similar to others I have seen in China, but nevertheless, I did like it. Probably the highlight of the night was eating something similar to shao bing 烧饼, but it seemed to be a Wuhan speciality, which I thought was absolutely delicious. I really enjoyed my day in Wuhan today. I experienced a lot of great Wuhan culture, and had a fun time traveling with Rain, the friend I had made from my hostel. This part has pictures of 热干面 re gan mian noodles, my friends, Wuhan University, The Wuhan Museum, and the night market called Jianghan Road.

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