Wuhan, consisting of Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang, is situated at the confluence of the Yangtze River and Hanshui River in the middle reaches of the Yangtze. It's China 's important land and water communication hub, and also has very convenient highway and air transport.
Wuhan was first settled more than 3,000 years ago. During the Han Dynasty, Hanyang became a fairly busy port. In the 3rd century AD one of the most famous battles in Chinese history and a central event in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms - the Battle of Red Cliffs, took place in the vicinity of the cliffs near Wuhan. Around that time, walls were built to protect Hanyang (AD 206) and Wuchang (AD 223). The latter event marks the foundation of Wuhan.
Wuhan is a China's inland key commercial center and the place of concentration and distribution for goods and materials, and Hankou in particular, is renowned for its flourishing commerce. Wuhan has a solid economic foundation. It is an important functional center for economy, trade, finance, transportation, information and technology and education in Central China. Its major sectors include modern manufacture industry with optic-electronic information, automobile manufacture as the key components, steel manufacturing, new pharmaceutical sector, biology engineering, new material industry, environmental protection. Besides, there are in this city 35 higher educational institutions including the well-known Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, 3 state-level development zones and many enterprise incubators. The comprehensive strength of science and technology ranks the third in China.
Wuhan has embarked on the road of building itself into the largest Chinese inland economic, financial and trade center, a key industrial and commercial port linking China's inland markets with the economic sphere of South-East Asia, North-East Asia and Middle Asia, and world markets, as well as an international metropolis.
