Wuhan #1: Hubei Provincial Museum and Wuhan University

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Breakfast, the most important meal of the day according to some and it is definitely an important meal in Wuhan. According to my friend, who lives here locals typically eat out for breakfast and even if they eat at home they don't prepare it themselves. Given the amount of restaurants and stalls selling breakfast, I could well believe it. After grabbing a quick coffee, we headed to Jiqing street about a 5-10 minute walk from where I was staying, which was lined with restaurants. I was excited to try 热干面 (reganmian), which translates to hot dry noodles. This dish is one of Wuhan's most famous and it sounded perfect for me as I like noodles, but not noodle soup. The restaurant we went to was called Cai Lin-Kee (蔡林记) and is a pretty popular place. The restaurant was packed with people sitting in to eat their breakfast and plenty more were ordering take out. We ordered the standard hot dry noodles and headed to the counter to collect our order. Next, we headed to the table where you could add extra chili sauce, vinegar, pickles and garlic chives. Then we found a place to sit and dug in. The Noodles were delicious, the perfect combination of spiciness, sesame, soy sauce and vinegar. If I lived in Wuhan, I would definitely eat this for breakfast often. It was very filling and perfect to help warm me up on a cold morning. Side bonus it was Super cheap, I forget the actual amount but less than 10 RMB.

Now fed and watered, we headed to the Hubei Provincial Museum. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei Province, so houses a lot of provincial museums and galleries. We didn't have too far to go on the subway to reach the general vicinity of the museum and then we had about a ten to fifteen minute walk to reach the museum. It was a pretty hazy day and the smog was obscuring my views of the city. I didn't know if I had just been unlucky or if Wuhan was often like that. It did mean that when I was trying to take a picture of the museum, I ended up having to delete my shots as they were just to smoggy. The museum is free, which always pleases my budget and since it was a Sunday, it was rammed with people. As much as I dislike crowds, I do like that so many people in China do visit museums and cultural attractions and do seem to be eager to learn more about their history. The museum is massive and to really do it justice, we would have had to spend all day there. So we ended up skipping a few of the exhibits. It was interesting to learn more about this area, as I really knew nothing about it. The area had been part of the Zeng State, but there were no records about it so it was a bit of a mystery until the discovery of the Marquis Yi's tomb and other items found later linked the Zeng State to that of the Sui people. It is cool that we are still discovering so much about he past, but at the same time frustrating that records weren't kept or were destroyed. We spent a long time looking at all the artifacts. It's cool to see that the fundamentals were the same then as now, the human race hasn't changed too much. I found the exhibit about the Yunxian Man interesting as I know a bit about the Peking Man. There were some mummies, which were pretty cool to see. He was an early species of human found in Longgu Cave in Meipu, Yun County, Hubei. Teeth fossils found were similar to those of the Peking Man. What makes the Yunxian Man different from other ancient human fossils found in Asia is that depression at the top of the nose is similar to European ancient species. There was also a temporary exhibit about Egypt, which we had a look around. There were no English explanations so I was clueless about most of it. On the top floor, there is some outdoor seating and we could see the grounds of the museum below us. It is very nice and well cared for.

We headed over to the Wuhan University district and to a mall to grab a late lunch. We weren't really that hungry as our breakfast had been so filling, so we tried to go for a lighter lunch. We kind of failed on that one. We went to a place that I think was called 'Lucky Kitchen' as my friend had been there quite a bit and recommended it. Since we weren't that hungry we ordered two dishes to share for our main meal and a dish that my friend termed as a 'dessert'. We got a hot and sour beef soup, which my friend said we'd had at uni before. Either the dish wasn't very memorable or my memory was going as I couldn't recall it. After sampling the dish, I think it was the food. It was nice, but not amazing or packed with flavour. The other dish we ordered was a firm favourite of mine. It is green vegetables with chilies and minced pork. I really like it because it is spicy and salty, a good combination in my opinion. Our last dish was our dessert. This was a combination of mashed/pureed sweet potato and pumpkin topped with cheese that had been melted under the grill. I really liked the combination, it was yummy.

We took a short walk to Wuhan university's campus. I really like how university campuses in China always seem to be buzzing with life. Wuhan University was established in 1893 and was known then as the Ziqiang Institute. It is and has been for a very long time, one of the top ten universities in China and has one of the most beautiful campuses. Spring is the best time to visit as there are many cherry blossom trees. I might have missed the cherry blossoms by being a few months too early or late, but the trees were starting to turn beautiful autumnal shades of red, orange and yellow. My friend had studied at this university so took me on a walking tour of the campus. It was filled with people all enjoying their weekend. The buildings were a nice mix of old and modern. We climbed up a high and steep step of steps, not what I wanted as my legs were still recovering from Huangshan, but the views from the top were worth it. The sun was starting to wane and this made the smoggy sky and skyline look quite pretty. We were above a set of student dorms and we could see all their washing drying in the courtyard below. I wonder if they mind having their living space invaded by so many people.

It was time for dinner, not that I was too hungry, but as a special treat I was getting a home cooked meal of traditional local dishes so I was really looking forward to that. My friend's family were making it so I felt a bit honoured that they were going to all that trouble. We headed to my friend's aunt and uncle's house on the subway. It was really nice to meet them and they were really friendly. My friend had to act as interpreter so that we could have a conversation but it wasn't too difficult. We definitely had a feast that night. Dishes just kept appearing on the table. Everything was so good. We had all kinds of different foods, thinly sliced cooked beef, duck, mapo tofu, another kind of tofu and vegetables. There were a few special dishes that I hadn't had before. One was a kind of rice ball filled with pork, that was yummy and I was told to consume them while they were hot as that is when they taste best. Another was a green vegetable, that apparently only grows in this area. It was little bit like bok choy, but thinner had less of the dark green part. That was good, too. My favourite of the new dishes I tried was the lotus root stew. It was in a clear broth with some different meats and I really enjoyed it. I love lotus root so it was nice to try it in a new dish. After dinner, my friend's uncle asked I wanted tea, of course I did. He had something called Kungfu tea and we had a pot of that. It was really nice, although my friend complained that drinking tea was an old people's thing. Since it was still quite early after dinner, we headed back to near where I was staying and wandered around a mall there for a while.

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Photos

Regan mian
Hot dry noodles

Lunch
Sour beef soup and green beans with minced pork and chili, The Lucky Kitchen

Unfortunate Acronym
Wuhan University