Wujiagang District 伍家岗区

Setting and landscape

The district lies in the hills where the Huangling uplands (黄陵山地) meet the Jianghan Plain, and here the Yangtze begins to widen out of its narrow gorge. Low mountains and hills make up about 70 per cent of the land: the riverside from Yimalu (一马路) to Wujiagang sits at 57–59 metres, rising to 100–200 metres in the north-east. The central hills are karst, with caves full of stalactites and stalagmites. Besides 14.2 kilometres of the Yangtze, the Bolin River (柏临河) and the Dongshan Canal (东山运河) run through the district. There are two stories behind the name: one says a few families surnamed Wu (伍) moved onto the ridge after the war against Japan, the other that five families of different surnames once cleared land here.

History

In 208 the state of Wei set up Linjiang Commandery (临江郡) at Linjiangping (临江坪), in today's district; it was renamed Yidu in 210 and Xiling in 222. After 1852, when Sichuan salt began to be shipped into Hubei, wharves and storage yards grew up along the river at Dagongqiao (大公桥) and Wanshouqiao (万寿桥). Once the 1876 Chefoo Convention opened Yichang as a treaty port, Dagongqiao became a street-market quarter, and in 1923–1925 the British built the Asiatic oil tank (亚细亚油罐), 21.5 metres across and 15 metres high, to supply western Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou.

After Japanese forces took Nanjing at the end of 1937, Yichang became the transfer base for the move west: government bodies and firms from the coast passed through it into Sichuan, and the Yichang evacuation (宜昌大撤退) took place in what is now the district. The city fell to Japan on 12 June 1940 and was freed only in 1945 after five years and two months of occupation. The district itself was created on 13 December 1986.

What to see

The riverbank keeps the century-old Tianran Pagoda (天然塔) and the Asiatic oil tank. The district's parks and open spaces include a waterside promenade, World Peace Park (世界和平公园), Binjiang Park (滨江公园), Baota Park (宝塔公园), Wuyi Square (五一广场) in the centre of Wujiagang and the Longpan Lake (龙盘湖) scenic resort; Longpan Lake Reservoir is the largest of the district's four reservoirs.

Highlights

• Asiatic oil tank 亚细亚油罐: Built by the British in 1923–1925, 21.5 metres across and 15 metres high, on the treaty-port riverfront.
• Tianran Pagoda 天然塔: Century-old pagoda on the district's Yangtze bank.
• Longpan Lake 龙盘湖: Scenic resort; Longpan Lake Reservoir is the largest of the district's four reservoirs.