Hubei - Tourism

Tourism

The province's most famous natural attraction (shared with the adjacent Chongqing Municipality) is the scenic area of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze. Located in the far west of the province, the gorges can be conveniently visited by one of the numerous tourist boats (or a regular passenger boats) that travel up the Yangtze from Yichang through the Three Gorges and into the neighboring Chongqing municipality.

The mountains of western Hubei, in particular in Shennongjia District, offer a welcome respite from Wuhan's and Yichang's summer heat, as well as skiing opportunities in winter. The tourist facilities in that area concentrate around Muyu in the southern part of Shennongjia, the gateway to Shennongjia National Nature Reserve (神农架国家自然保护区). Closer to the provincial capital, Wuhan, is the Mount Jiugong (Jiugongshan) national park, in Tongshan County near the border with Jiangxi.

A particular important site of both natural and cultural significance is Mount Wudang (Wudangshan) in the northwest of the province. Originally created early in the Ming Dynasty, its building complex has been listed by UNESCO since 1994 as a World Heritage Site.

Other historic attractions in Hubei include:

• The old Jingzhou City
• The Xianling Mausoleum, built by the Ming Dynasty Jiajing Emperor for his parents at their fief near Zhongxiang.
• The Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan
• The Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan, with extensive archaeological and cultural exhibits and performance presentations of ancient music and dance. This is one of the best places to learn about the ancient state of Chu, which flourished on the territory of present-day Hubei during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty which developed its own unique culture, quite distinct from that of the Shang/Zhou civilization of the northern China.

The province also has historical sites connected with China's more recent history, such as the Wuchang Uprising Memorial in Wuhan, Project 131 site (a Cultural-Revolution-era underground military command center) in Xianning, and the National Mining Park (国家矿山公园) in Huangshi.