The Savage Traveler: China Spring 2016 Part 7

Days 5 and 6: Day 5 was one of travel; bus, airport, plane trip, and bus when we arrived in the city of Wuhan in the evening. For us this stay turned out to be one of much needed rest.

Typical farmer in a typical field along the highway

City of Wuhan from our hotel window

On day 6 we boarded a bus for a 4 hour drive from Wuhan to Jingzhou, a 6000 year old walled city, on the Yanghzee River. This part of China is humid and subtropical, though at this time of year, the temperature was cool. This is a rice growing region and we passed many small farms with paddies and nearby homes. Some are single family farm homes, but more often farms are located close to communities with high rise apartments built by the government.

Farmers working along a river

Flooded rice patties

Field workers near the government built "Farm Houses" now typical for the region.

These too are farm workers quarters

Farm Village

Small cemeteries were often snuggled between farm fields

Approaching the Jingzou City Wall

An open-front shoe store at the City Wall

When we came to Jingzhou, a little hamlet of 5.6 million people, we stopped at a wonderful museum that housed items from the Chu era (8th century BC) which included silk artifacts, lacquer ware, pottery, sculptures and a perfectly preserved 2000 year old man from the dynasty. So well preserved was he in the cool mud that, when he was removed from the coffin, his skin was still damp, they could determine his blood type and figure out what caused his death. There still remain many tombs in the area not excavated.

The grounds of the cultural museum were quite beautiful!

Artifacts found near or in the tomb.

We then spent time on the ancient city wall. The ancient wall was originally built in the Spring and Autumn Period over 2,000 years ago. The brick wall we can see now was rebuilt in Ming and Qing dynasties. However a range of 50 meters was built since the Three Kindoms (220-280 A.D.). The existing wall is about 3.75 km long from east to west, 1.2 km from wide north to south and nine meters high, with perimeter about 10.28 kilometers. It covers an area of 4.5 square kilometers. The wall has nine gates (six are old city gates and the other three are new) and 2 gate towers. Jingzhou City Wall is divided into three parts. The outside part is a city moat; the middle part is brick wall and the inner part is earth wall. The city moat has a total length of 10,500 meters, and is 30 meters in width and 4 meters in depth. It connects Taihu Lake in the west and Changhu Lake in the east.