Crossing Wuhan by ferry: a walking day from Wuchang breakfast to Hankou's riverfront

Wuhan is three towns that a river kept apart for most of their history. The slowest way between two of them is still the best: a public ferry that costs less than a bottle of water and takes about fifteen minutes.

Start with breakfast in Wuchang

Locals call the morning meal guozao (过早), and they eat it standing or walking. On Liangdao Street (粮道街), order reganmian (热干面), noodles tossed in sesame paste with pickled radish and scallion, and stir before the paste sets. A bowl costs a few yuan, and the stalls are busiest before nine.

Take the ferry, not the bridge

Walk about twenty minutes west to Zhonghua Road Pier (中华路码头) and pay at the turnstile by phone. Stand at the rail. Upstream, the 1957 bridge carries trains below and cars above, and Yellow Crane Tower sits on the hill behind it.

坐轮渡过江，是武汉人最日常的风景。

Walk Hankou's riverfront blocks

The boat lands at Wuhan Guan pier beside the Hankou Customs House (江汉关), a 1924 granite building with a clock tower, now a museum. From there, follow Yanjiang Avenue (沿江大道) north-east past former banks and trading houses. Turn inland at Lihuangpi Road (黎黄陂路), a pedestrian street of early-1900s brick buildings with a plaque at each door.

A short walk on is Bagong House (巴公房子), a red-brick wedge from 1910 that fills its triangular plot. End the afternoon in Hankou Riverside Park (汉口江滩), where the flood wall becomes a promenade. The last ferries back run in the early evening, so check the board at the pier before you settle in.