Travel Guide to Hubei Province: China’s “Bridge of the Motherland” and the Birthplace of Jingchu Culture

Hubei Province, abbreviated as “E”, also known as “Chu” or Jingchu, is a provincial-level administrative region of the People’s Republic of China, with Wuhan as its capital. Located in central China, it borders Anhui to the east, Chongqing to the west, Shaanxi to the northwest, Jiangxi and Hunan to the south, and Henan to the north. As of June 2023, Hubei governs 12 prefecture-level cities, 1 autonomous prefecture, and 4 county-level administrative regions directly under the provincial government.
In the Qing Dynasty, Wuchang, the provincial capital, was under the jurisdiction of Ezhou, hence the abbreviation “E”. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Central People’s Government confirmed that the abbreviation of Hubei Province would remain “E”, following historical convention.
More than 5,000 years ago, Chinese alligators lived widely in the Yangtze River Basin. Centered on the Ezhou area, a people living by hunting alligators gradually emerged, and a state came into being over the long course of history. The ancient E State was an important regional state in Chinese history. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the E King City established the landmark of the character “E” as the name of Hubei. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, two poems of the Chu State elevated the historical significance of “E”.
Emperor Qin Shi Huang conquered the six warring states and unified China. Ending the feudal vassal system that had caused chaos, he implemented the prefecture and county system. The E King City thus became E County, one of China’s earliest county-level administrative divisions. On April 7, 1664 (the third year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty), Hubei was officially established as a province. In the early Yongzheng reign, the Huguang Governor and Pianyuan Governor were formally renamed the Governor of Hubei and the Governor of Hunan respectively. Since then, the name “Hubei” has been used as a provincial name to this day.
Hubei’s terrain is roughly surrounded by mountains on the east, west and north sides, with a low and flat central part, forming an incomplete basin opening slightly southward. It has a subtropical monsoon climate with four distinct seasons: cold winters, hot summers, warm springs and cool autumns, with concentrated rainfall in the warm season but uneven spatial and temporal distribution.
The main streams of the Yangtze River and Han River run through Hubei. Major tributaries include the Han River, Juzhang River, Qingjiang River, Lushui River, Sheshui River, Daoshui River, Jushui River, Bashui River, Xishui River and Fushui River. Among them, the Han River is the largest tributary in the middle reaches of the Yangtze, entering Yunxi County in Hubei from the General River in Baihe County, Shaanxi, and emptying into the Yangtze in Wuhan. Hubei is known as the “Province of a Thousand Lakes”. Most lakes are distributed on the Jianghan Plain, including Honghu Lake, Liangzi Lake, Changhu Lake and Futou Lake.
Hubei is the native habitat of the dawn redwood, a “living fossil”. The world-famous “King of Dawn Redwoods” grows in Lichuan City, Enshi Autonomous Prefecture. Davidia involucrata, a national first-class protected plant, is found in communities in Shennongjia National Park, Houhe in Wufeng, Qizimei Mountain in Xuan’en and other national nature reserves. Lichuan, Luotian and Baokang have been named “Hometown of Chinese Dawn Redwoods”, “Hometown of Chinese Wild Orchids” and “Hometown of Chinese Crape Myrtles” respectively by the China Wild Plant Conservation Association. Huangmei, Shishou, Xiangyang and Nanzhang have been awarded the titles of “Hometown of Chinese Hooded Cranes”, “Hometown of Chinese Père David’s Deer”, “Hometown of Chinese Red-billed Leiothrix” and “Hometown of Chinese Mandarin Ducks” by the China Wildlife Conservation Association.
Humans have lived and multiplied in Hubei as early as 700,000 to 800,000 years ago. During the Xia Dynasty, Xia culture had spread to the Jianghan region. After the Qin Dynasty abolished the enfeoffment system and established the prefecture-county system, most of Hubei belonged to Nan Commandery. In the Sui Dynasty, most parts of Hubei (except parts of the northwest and a corner of the east) fell under Jingzhou. In the Song Dynasty, Jinghu North Circuit was set up in central Hubei. In the early Ming Dynasty, Hubei was part of Huguang Province. During the Republican period, the people’s revolutionary forces led by the Communist Party of China established many revolutionary regimes here. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, a series of adjustments were made to Hubei’s administrative divisions.
Connecting east and west, linking north and south, Hubei is a key region approved by the State Council to support the development of the Yangtze Economic Belt and the rise of central China, holding an important position in national and regional development.
Hubei has national-level agricultural science and technology demonstration parks. In 2025, the province’s grain output reached 27.9116 million tons, an increase of 0.2% year-on-year; cereal output stood at 26.2839 million tons, up 0.1%. Meanwhile, outputs of oil crops, tea, garden fruits, vegetables, edible fungi and aquatic products all achieved growth.
In 2025, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size rose by 6.9% year-on-year. Among major industries, computer communication and electronics, electrical equipment, chemical industry, non-ferrous metals and automobiles all recorded growth. Shiyan is a commercial vehicle production base ranking “first in China and top three in the world”. The added value of high-tech manufacturing expanded, with outputs of complete computers, integrated circuit wafers, smartphones and lithium-ion batteries all increasing. Hubei is home to 4 national strategic emerging industrial clusters and 16 national innovative industrial clusters, both among the highest in China. High-tech manufacturing contributed 35.6% to the growth of industrial enterprises above designated size. Wuhan East Lake, Xiangyang and Yichang high-tech zones rank among China’s top 50.
Located in central China along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Hubei is the central hub of the golden Yangtze waterway and major north-south transport corridors, covering 80% of China’s population and radiating 90% of its economic aggregate. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Hubei made breakthrough progress in six aspects: infrastructure construction, livelihood services, major strategic transport support, transport service quality, transport transformation and governance capacity, highlighting its status as “China’s Bridge of the Motherland”.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Hubei will accelerate the construction of a comprehensive transportation spatial layout of “three hubs, two corridors, three zones and nine channels”. It will also speed up building a “meter-shaped” and “ten-direction” high-speed rail hub network, an expressway network of “nine vertical, five horizontal and four ring roads”, a water transport system featuring “river-ocean intermodal transport, water-rail intermodal transport, direct water-to-water shipping, coastal transshipment and port-city integration”, and an oil and gas pipeline network of “five vertical, four horizontal and one channel”, forming the backbone of an integrated three-dimensional transportation network.
As of 2022, Hubei has 7 civil airports: Wuhan Tianhe International Airport, Ezhou Huahu Airport, Xiangyang Liuji Airport, Shiyan Wudangshan Airport, Jingzhou Shashi Airport, Enshi Xujiaping Airport and Shennongjia Hongping Airport.
Hubei is the birthplace of Jingchu Culture and the political, economic and cultural center of the ancient Chu State. Suizhou, Gucheng and Shennongjia in Hubei were major areas where Yan Emperor Shennong lived and worked, leaving numerous folk legends and cultural relics. Li Sao, a poem by Qu Yuan, a senior official of the Chu State, is world-famous. The Dragon Boat Festival, an important Chinese folk festival, originated in the Chu region to commemorate Qu Yuan, with traditions such as eating zongzi and dragon boat races.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, Hubei was one of the important cultural centers. Ancient Yunmeng Marsh, Shuihudi and Longgang Qin bamboo slips, and Zhangjiashan Han bamboo slips are all precious cultural treasures. The ethnic areas of Hubei, mainly Enshi Autonomous Prefecture and the two autonomous counties of Changyang and Wufeng, are rich in Ba-Tujia culture. The Wuchang Uprising of the 1911 Revolution overthrew the last feudal dynasty in Chinese history. In 1983, Hubei cuisine was listed among China’s top ten cuisines, and in 2018 it was officially named “Chu Cuisine”. Jingchu Culture of Hubei features distinctive regional characteristics and enormous cultural value.
By the end of 2025, Hubei had 87 state-owned art performance troupes, 126 mass art and cultural centers, and 245 museums.
As of 2022, Hubei boasted 100 national-level and 351 provincial-level intangible cultural heritage items, covering folk literature, traditional dance, traditional music, traditional opera, quyi and other categories. It is home to 4 world heritage sites including the Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains, and 6 ancient cultural sites such as the Zaolin Cemetery.
Hubei has 5 national famous historical and cultural cities including Jingzhou, 16 AAAAA-level tourist attractions such as the Yellow Crane Tower, as well as 64 famous tourist towns, 138 famous tourist villages and 24 famous tourist streets.
Rich in diverse and distinctive tourism resources, Hubei’s representative natural landscapes include Wuhan East Lake Scenic Area, Wudang Mountains Scenic Area, Three Gorges Great Waterfall, Shennongjia Ecotourism Area, and Enshi Grand Canyon. Representative cultural landscapes include Huangpi Mulan Cultural Ecotourism Area, Xiangyang Ancient City, Tangcheng Scenic Area, Three Gorges Dam, Ancient Chibi Battlefield, Ancient Longzhong, and the Hometown of Qu Yuan.
In the first half of 2023, Hubei received 324 million tourist visits, with a total tourism revenue of 373.581 billion yuan.