China Guide
The Yangzi basin
Hanyang
Settled as far back as 600 AD, Hanyang remained insignificant until the late nineteenth century when the viceroy Zhang Zhidong built China's first large-scale steel foundry here as part of the "Self-Strengthening Movement" – a last-ditch effort to modernize China during the twilight years of the Qing dynasty.
Hanyang remains Wuhan's principal manufacturing sector; its distinctly shabby streets are dotted with small-scale industries. The Jianghan Bridge runs south to a huge roundabout below the western end of Gui Shan Park. West of the roundabout, Guqin Tai (Ancient Lute Platform; ¥15) was the haunt of legendary strummer Yu Boya, who played over the grave of his friend Zhong Ziqi and then smashed his instrument because the one person able to appreciate his music was dead.
Guiyuan Si (daily 8.30am–5pm; ¥10) is a busy Buddhist monastery a couple of streets southwest of the roundabout on Cuiweiheng Lu, behind Hanyang's long-distance bus station. There's an authoritarian atmosphere to the place, emphasized by blocky, black-and-white brick buildings, though the temple's scripture collection – which includes a complete seven-thousand-volume set of the rare Longcan Sutra – has made it famous among Buddhist circles. Of more general interest are several hundred individually styled saintly statues in the Arhat Hall as well as the statue of Sakyamuni in the main hall, a gift from Burma in 1935, carved from a single block of white jade.