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An amalgamation of three distinct
city centres facing each other across a fork in the Yangtse river, Wuhan
is an enormous city of strategic military importance in ancient Chinese
history, as its geographical location makes it a necessary place to conquer
and occupy in war time. As a result, although Wuhan is 3500 years old there's
much less cultural sedimentation around than in other, younger cities.
Nowadays Wuhan's military battles
are won and the city is slowly making its way into a middle age as a post-colonial,
heavily industrial, moneyed provincial capital. After a chaotic industrialisation
period which ended in widespread bankruptcy, Wuhan is finally returning
to its mercantile heyday of a century before.
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