Wuhan, China

Wuhan is three cities in one. Wuchang, on the south bank of the Yangtze, holds the Yellow Crane Tower (Huanghe Lou), one of China's four great towers, perched on Snake Hill overlooking the river — rebuilt multiple times since its original construction in 223 AD, the current structure (1985) commands the classic Wuhan panorama. Wuhan University's hillside campus, designed in the 1930s with Chinese palace-style rooftops, erupts in cherry blossoms each March-April, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors in a two-week frenzy. East Lake (Donghu), at 33 square kilometres nearly six times the size of Hangzhou's West Lake, provides a green lung with lakeside cycling paths, the Moshan Hill scenic area, and a greenway system that has become a model for Chinese urban parks. Hankou, on the north bank, was one of China's major treaty ports — the former concession districts (British, French, German, Russian, Japanese) preserve a stretch of colonial architecture along Yanjiang Avenue (the Bund of Wuhan) that rivals Shanghai's in scale if not in fame. The Jianghan Road pedestrian street and the Jiqing Street food night market are Hankou's commercial and culinary centres. Hanyang, the smallest of the three, holds the Guiyuan Temple (a Chan Buddhist monastery with 500 arhat statues, each with unique expressions) and the Qingchuan Pavilion facing the Yellow Crane Tower across the river. Wuhan's breakfast culture (guozao) is legendary — the city eats more varieties of morning food than perhaps any city in China, with hot-dry noodles (reganmian) as the undisputed king.