title: Super Bowl XXXVI

text: Super Bowl XXXVI later became part of the wider 2007 New England Patriots videotaping controversy, also known as "Spygate". In addition to other videotaping allegations, the "Boston Herald" reported, citing an unnamed source, that the Patriots had also taped the Rams' walkthrough practice prior to the game. After further investigations, the league determined that no tape of the Rams' Super Bowl walkthrough was made, and the "Herald" later issued an apology in 2008 for their article about the alleged walkthrough tape. Nevertheless, the Patriots finished the 2007 regular season with a perfect 16–0 record, but failed to record an undefeated 19–0 championship season after losing Super Bowl XLII to the New York Giants. And at the conclusion of the 2015 NFL season, the Patriots held the NFL's best record since Spygate, compiling a 96–32 record from 2008 to 2015.


title: Super Bowl XXXVI

text: The Patriots' win in this Super Bowl, beyond just serving as a springboard to a dynasty that lasted nearly two decades and resulted in five more championships, also became the starting point for a decade of success in Boston sports, with the city's teams in the four major North American sports leagues (the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins in addition to the Patriots) winning seven championships including at least one each. Following the Bruins winning the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, "Boston Globe" columnist Dan Shaughnessy ranked all seven championships from the past decade and ranked the Patriots winning Super Bowl XXXVI as the second-greatest Boston sports championship of the decade behind only the Red Sox winning the 2004 World Series and breaking the "Curse of the Bambino".


title: Super Bowl XXXVI

text: Brady, Milloy and Vinatieri also provided the team's commentary in the 2001 Patriots' episode of "", narrated by actor Martin Sheen.


title: Super Bowl XXXVI

text: After the Patriots won their first championship in franchise history, it started a run of a team in American sports from NCAA Football and Basketball and the four major sports winning their first (or next) franchise championship with a wait of 17 years or more between titles. This streak is still continuing in 2022 after Georgia won the NCAA Football national championship for the first time since 1980, the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl for the first time since 1999, and the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup for the first time since 2001.


title: Super Bowl XXXVI

text: Beginning with the Rams' appearance in Super Bowl XXXVI, 10 different NFC teams appeared in the Super Bowl over the next 10 years. This trend was broken when the New York Giants earned a trip to Super Bowl XLVI after participating in Super Bowl XLII four years earlier (the Giants defeated the Patriots in both games).


title: Super Bowl XXXVI

text: This game was regarded as a "Super Bowl hangover" for the Rams because they lost a Super Bowl where they were heavy favorites, with a win potentially ushering in a Rams dynasty, but instead the loss signaled the beginning of the end of The Greatest Show on Turf era. Due to injuries to Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk, the Rams finished with a 7–9 record the following year and missed the postseason. They qualified for the playoffs only two more times (2003 and 2004), and only won one more playoff game (the 2004–05 wild card game) during the remainder of their tenure in St. Louis. Head coach Mike Martz was fired after missing most of the 2005 season due to illness. Warner suffered a concussion on opening day in 2003, and was later demoted to backup quarterback for the rest of that season. He then signed with the New York Giants in 2004 as a caretaker quarterback, eventually losing the starting job to rookie quarterback Eli Manning. Warner later joined the Arizona Cardinals in 2005 and eventually gained the starting job where he led that team to their first Super Bowl appearance, XLIII, following the 2008 season.


title: Super Bowl XXXVI

text: Super Bowl XXXVI ended up being the last Super Bowl that the Rams participated while based in St. Louis; they relocated back to Los Angeles in 2016. The Rams would once again reach the Super Bowl in the 2018 season and 2021 season, winning the latter.


title: Super Bowl XXXVI

text: The Patriots and the now Los Angeles Rams rematched 17 years later in Super Bowl LIII (2019); again featuring the head coach-quarterback tandem of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady who are the only active personnel left from Super Bowl XXXVI. Coincidentally like XXXVI, LIII also featured one of the league's top offenses (Rams) against one of the top defenses (Patriots). The Patriots won their record-tying sixth Super Bowl by defeating the Rams 13–3, with Brady remarking that LIII had a "throwback feel" to XXXVI.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airlines EasyJet UK, EasyJet Switzerland, and EasyJet Europe.EasyJet plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. EasyGroup Holdings Ltd, the investment vehicle of the airline's founder, Greek-Cypriot businessman Stelios Haji-Ioannou, is the largest shareholder with a 15.27% stake (as of September 2021). It employs circa 13,000 people, based throughout Europe but mainly in the UK.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet has seen expansion since its establishment in 1995, having grown through a combination of acquisitions, and base openings fuelled by consumer demand for low-cost air travel. The group, along with associate companies EasyJet UK, EasyJet Europe and EasyJet Switzerland, operate 308 aircraft. It has 29 bases across Europe, the largest being Gatwick. In 2014, the airline carried more than 65 million passengers, making it the second-largest budget airline in Europe by number of passengers carried, behind Ryanair.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet was featured in the television series "Airline" broadcast on ITV (1998-2007) which followed the airline's operations at London Luton and later at other bases. Its pilot training scheme was the subject of another ITV television series, "", which premiered in August 2017.


title: EasyJet

text: On 30 March 2020, EasyJet temporarily grounded its entire fleet of planes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They later closed three of their bases.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet has its roots in the business activity of Greek-Cypriot Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who reportedly gained an interest in the aviation business after being approached as a potential investor in Virgin Atlantic's Greek franchisee. Recognising a vacant niche in the market, Stelios decided to examine the prospects for launching his airline, having secured a commitment of a £5 million ($7.7 million) loan from his father. While studying various business models in the industry, Stelios took a significant interest in the American operator Southwest Airlines, which had successfully adopted the practice of price elasticity to be competitive with traditionally cheaper buses and attract customers that wouldn't normally have considered air travel. This principle became a cornerstone of EasyJet's operations.


title: EasyJet

text: In 1995, EasyJet was established by Stelios, being the first company in what would later become the easyGroup conglomerate. Upon launch, it employed just 70 people; the company is based at London Luton Airport, which was traditionally used only by charter flights. To encourage the company, Luton Airport chose to give EasyJet free use of a 15,000 square feet building for its headquarters, which it named "easyLand"; its management style typified minimal overhead, such as an early implementation of the paperless office concept. EasyJet initially operated a pair of wet leased Boeing 737-200 aircraft, capable of seating 130 passengers. These were flown on two routes: Luton to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Early on, EasyJet operated as a "paper airline", the aircraft themselves being flown and maintained under a lease.


title: EasyJet

text: Early promotional activity focused on the airline's relatively low pricing compared to incumbent operators. Within its first year, easyJet reportedly carried approximately 40,000 passengers.


title: EasyJet

text: In April 1996, the first wholly owned aircraft was delivered to EasyJet, enabling the company's first international route, to Amsterdam, which was operated in direct competition with rival airlines British Airways (BA) and Dutch flag carrier KLM. Competitors responded to the emerging EasyJet in different ways; while BA was largely indifferent, KLM allegedly chose to respond with a predatory pricing strategy that led to an investigation by the European Union over unfair competitive practices. Despite commercial pressure from the emergent no-frills sector, traditional airlines have been unable to directly adopt similar practices to EasyJet due to vigorous protection of existing employee privileges by unions.


title: EasyJet

text: Until October 1997, all of EasyJet's aircraft were operated by GB Airways, and subsequently by Monarch Airlines and Air Foyle, as EasyJet had not yet received its Air Operator's Certificate.


title: EasyJet

text: On 5 November 2000, EasyJet was floated on the London Stock Exchange. In October 2004, the FL Group, owner of the airlines Icelandair and Sterling, purchased an 8.4% stake in the airline. Over the course of 2005, FL increased its share in the company periodically to 16.9%, fuelling speculation that it would mount a takeover bid for the UK carrier. However, in April 2006, the threat of takeover receded as FL sold its stake for €325 million, securing a profit of €140m on its investment.


title: EasyJet

text: In March 2013, EasyJet was promoted to the FTSE 100; during the same month, the company launched its 100th route from Gatwick Airport, offering flights directly from London to Moscow. By 2015, the company was flying routes to more than 130 destinations in 31 countries, operated 26 bases centred around Europe, and had a total of 10,000 employees.


title: EasyJet

text: In March 1998, EasyJet purchased a 40% stake in Swiss charter airline TEA Basle for three million Swiss francs. The airline was renamed EasyJet Switzerland and commenced franchise services on 1 April 1999, having relocated its headquarters to Geneva International Airport. Geneva was EasyJet's first new base outside the United Kingdom. In 2002, rival airline Go Fly was purchased for £374  million; the airline inherited three new bases from Go, at Bristol Airport, East Midlands Airport and London Stansted Airport; the acquisition of Go almost doubled the number of Boeing 737-300 aircraft in the EasyJet fleet.


title: EasyJet

text: In 2002, the airline opened its base at Gatwick Airport. Between 2003 and 2007, it opened additional bases in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, establishing a presence in continental Europe. By 2007, EasyJet was claiming to be operating more flights per day than any other European airline.


title: EasyJet

text: On 25 October 2007, EasyJet purchased the entire share capital of GB Airways from the Bland Group. This acquisition was valued at £103.5 million, and was used by the airline to expand its operations at Gatwick, and to establish a base at Manchester Airport.


title: EasyJet

text: In June 2011, the airline opened its eleventh British base – at London Southend Airport, offering flights to Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belfast, Faro, Málaga, Jersey, Palma de Mallorca and Ibiza.


title: EasyJet

text: In July 2017, EasyJet announced it would open a new European headquarters in Austria to enable it to operate after Brexit.


title: EasyJet

text: On 28 October 2017, EasyJet announced it will lease 25 former Air Berlin A320 aircraft to operate across EasyJet Europe's network, under its European AOC. Several of these aircraft were based at Berlin-Tegel Airport, before its closure. These aircraft have subsequently been transferred to Berlin-Brandenburg Airport. Previously EasyJet had only operated from Berlin-Schönefeld Airport and Berlin-Tegel Airport, where EasyJet had taken over some of Air Berlin's old services.


title: EasyJet

text: On 30 March 2020, EasyJet suspended all flights, grounded its entire fleet, and furloughed its crews due to travel restrictions imposed. This came after the company had flown 650 'rescue flights', taking 45,000 people back home. In April 2020, EasyJet secured a £600 million loan from the UK Government with no environmental conditions attached. In June 2020, EasyJet announced their intention to resume flights, flying half of their routes in July 2020 and up to 75 per cent in August 2020, though with reduced frequency.


title: EasyJet

text: In April 2020, EasyJet became involved in a dispute with its owner and largest shareholder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Haji-Ioannou criticised the airline's decision not to seek to cancel the outstanding Airbus order, claiming it would create an additional £4.5bn of capital which the airline could not afford to spend. He threatened to call a general meeting to remove a director every three weeks unless subsequent action was taken. A general meeting was held on 22 May, where shareholders ultimately voted over 99% in favour of the EasyJet board and retaining the Airbus contract.


title: EasyJet

text: On 19 May 2020, the company revealed that it had been the subject of a cyber-attack resulting in the release of the personal information of 9 million customers.


title: EasyJet

text: On 17 August 2020, EasyJet confirmed in a statement they would be closing three bases in the UK. Stansted, Southend, as well as Newcastle from the end of August due to low levels of air travel demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: EasyJet

text: On 30 September 2021, Stelios Haji-Ioannou and his family lost control of the company, after failing to take up the rights issue and being diluted: their stake was just 15.27% as of 30 September 2021.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet, like Ryanair, uses a business model pioneered by Southwest Airlines. Both airlines have adapted this model for the European market through further cost-cutting measures, such as not selling connecting flights or providing complimentary snacks on board. The key points of this business model are high aircraft utilisation, quick turnaround times, charging for extras (such as priority boarding, holding baggage, and food) and keeping operating costs low. One main difference EasyJet and Ryanair have from Southwest is they both fly a young fleet of aircraft. Southwest has an average fleet age of 11.9 years whereas Ryanair's and EasyJet's average fleet ages are just a little over six years each.


title: EasyJet

text: Initially, EasyJet's employment strategy was to maintain control with minimal union involvement. During the 2000s, the airline adopted a different approach, deciding to make accommodations for unions.


title: EasyJet

text: Originally, much like Southwest, EasyJet did not allocate seats – passengers took any available seats, with the option to pay for "Speedy Boarding", which allowed them to be first onto the aircraft. Since 2012, all passengers are allocated numbered seats before boarding commences, as it was found that this does not slow down boarding times and could earn more revenue than Speedy Boarding. Passengers can pay an additional fee for certain seats such as the front few rows and overwing seats (which have extra legroom).


title: EasyJet

text: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic until August 2020, EasyJet raised over £2.4 billion in new finance. Out of the sum, £600 million came from the Covid Corporate Financing Facility provided by the UK government and over £400m was raised from placement of shares. In November 2020, EasyJet announced that, due to the pandemic and the lockdowns in many countries, it would scale back its reduced flying schedule to no more than 20 percent of capacity. It also announced its first annual loss during the 25 year history of the company.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet's head office is Hangar 89 (H89), a building located on the grounds of London Luton Airport in Luton, Bedfordshire; the hangar is located from EasyLand, the previous headquarters of the airline. Hangar 89, built in 1974, has of office space and can house three aircraft the size of an Airbus A319 at one time. When EasyJet received H89, it had a 1970s-style office setup. The airline modernised the building and painted it orange.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet's early marketing slogan was "making flying as affordable as a pair of jeans". It urged travellers to cut out the travel agent. Its original advertising consisted of little more than the airline's telephone booking number painted in bright orange on the side of its aircraft. The specific color that EasyJet uses closely resembles that of the telecommunications corporation Orange and was a subject of dispute between the two companies in 2004 when easyGroup launched a mobile phone subsidiary, easyMobile.


title: EasyJet

text: The "Airline" TV series created by LWT and filmed between 1999 and 2007 made EasyJet a household name in the United Kingdom. The series, while not always portraying the airline in a positive light, did much to promote it during this time. The airline has used a number of slogans since its establishment, including "The Web's Favourite Airline", "Come on, let's fly" and "To Fly, To Save" (a parody of British Airways' slogan "To Fly, To Serve"). This was then followed by "[...] by easyJet", with "Europe by easyJet" and "business by easyJet" being the most widely used. It currently uses the slogan "This is Generation easyJet".


title: EasyJet

text: In June 2007, EasyJet announced plans for the construction of its airliner, dubbed "EcoJet". It was claimed to possess improved fuel efficiency over contemporary airliners. To achieve this, the EcoJet was described as using propfan engines, as well as being constructed with extensive use of carbon fibre composite material. At the time of the announcement, it was stated that the first flight was scheduled to occur sometime during 2015. Speaking at the time, EasyJet chief executive Andy Harrison commented that: "We have not developed a new concept. We have taken ideas from Boeing, Airbus and the engine manufacturers and put them together." Harrison claimed that the EcoJet, combined with other improvements in the industry, would enable a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions within eight years. However, there has been few announcements on the project since then.


title: EasyJet

text: In February 2011, the airline painted eight of its aircraft with a lightweight, thin "revolutionary nano technology coating" polymer. It works by reducing the build-up of debris and reduces drag across the surface of the aircraft, thus reducing the fuel bill. It was estimated the airline could save 1–2% annually, equating to a £14  million reductions in fuel costs. The coating has already been used on US military aircraft and if successful EasyJet would apply the paint to its whole fleet. In late 2015, EasyJet started making use of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data for the purpose of improving efficiency, cutting costs, and enhancing the customer experience.


title: EasyJet

text: On 27 September 2017, EasyJet announced its partnership with an American start-up company Wright Electric with the purpose of developing and introducing a short-haul 120-seat all-electric airline. The propulsion system is said to comprise a series of eight electrically driven ducted fans that are buried in the wings, which are powered by numerous battery packs distributed underneath the cabin floor; it is claimed to possess a range of roughly 335 miles, suitable for about one-fifth of EasyJet's current city routes, and facilitate zero-emission flights, as well as being 50% quieter and 10% less expensive to operate than conventional jet airliners. At the time, EasyJet stated that it intended to introduce electric aircraft into revenue service within 10 years. In October 2018, EasyJet stated that progress was being made on its electric ambitions and that the partnerships planned to test a nine-seater electric plane as early as 2019.


title: EasyJet

text: Since November 2019, easyJet has offset the carbon emissions from all of its flights using carbon offsetting projects that meet either the Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) accreditation. As a result, it is the first major airline in the world to operate net-carbon-zero flights across its entire network. The airline describes this as an "interim" measure whilst the next generation of aircraft propulsion is developed. Consequently, easyJet announced a partnership with Airbus on a joint research project into zero-emission hydrogen aircraft.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet has been criticised in Germany for not observing European Union law on compensation (and assistance to passengers) in cases of denied boarding, delays or cancellations (Regulation 261/2004). When flights are cancelled, passengers are supposed to be reimbursed within one week. In 2006, the airline did not always refund tickets in a timely fashion. Passengers occasionally had to wait longer for reimbursement of their expenses.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet has campaigned for the UK to replace air passenger duty (APD) with a new tax that would vary depending on distance travelled and aircraft type.


title: EasyJet

text: In July 2008, the United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) criticised a press campaign by the airline, over a misleading environmental claim that its aircraft released 22% fewer emissions than rival airlines. The figures used were not based on emissions produced by an EasyJet aircraft or emissions produced by the airline overall as the advertisement implied, and ASA declared that the airline had broken advertising rules. The judgement that followed reprimanded the airline in April 2007 after it made comments that its aircraft created 30% less pollution per passenger than some of its rivals.


title: EasyJet

text: In July 2011, the airline tried to refuse carriage of a boy with muscular dystrophy because he had an electric wheelchair. In separate incidents in 2012, paralympians received similar treatment, and a French court found the airline guilty of three counts of disability discrimination. In January 2017, the company was fined €60,000 by another French court because it had refused to allow a disabled passenger to board in 2010; the company cited security concerns and internal regulations, but said it would not appeal against the ruling.


title: EasyJet

text: In September 2013, a passenger who sent a tweet complaining about the airline after his flight was delayed said he was initially told he would not be allowed to board the aircraft because of the posting.


title: EasyJet

text: On 27 August 2020, the airline was sued by a woman over discriminatory concerns. The woman had been asked to switch seats twice in a row, to accommodate two ultra-Orthodox Jewish men.


title: EasyJet

text: Following the UK's referendum vote to leave the European Union, EasyJet announced a plan to establish an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) in another EU member state. This will secure the flying rights of the 30% of EasyJet's network that remains wholly within and between EU states, excluding the UK. EasyJet expects a one-off cost of around £10 million over two years with up to £5 million incurred in the 2017 financial year. The primary driver of the cost is the re-registering of aircraft in an EU AOC jurisdiction. In July 2017, EasyJet announced that it has applied for, and was subsequently granted by the Ministry of Transport, an Austrian Air Operator Certificate (AOC) and operating permit, thereby establishing EasyJet Europe. The new airline is headquartered in Vienna and will allow EasyJet to continue operating flights across and within European countries after the UK leaves the EU. The first aircraft, an Airbus A320, was re-registered as OE-IVA.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet announced that the transition would result in no job losses in the UK, as the staff to be employed by EasyJet Europe are already based in the EU27. EasyJet UK staff would continue to be based in Luton. The group will thus comprise three airlines, EasyJet UK, EasyJet Europe, and EasyJet Switzerland, all of which are owned by EasyJet plc, which is itself EU owned and controlled, listed on the London Stock Exchange, and based in the UK. In May 2018, EasyJet confirmed that it was very close to achieving the required majority EU27 share ownership and that the UK government will nevertheless continue to consider it as a UK airline.


title: EasyJet

text: In 2013, EasyJet entered a commercial agreement with Transaero Airlines to set up a codeshare agreement, whereby Transaero acquired the right to sell a certain number of seats on EasyJet's Moscow (Domodedovo) – London (Gatwick) route. This was the first codeshare agreement for EasyJet; it was terminated when Transaero Airlines ceased to operate in October 2015. Citing diminishing demand on the route, EasyJet ceased all flights to Moscow in March 2016.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet plc.'s total fleet comprises entirely Airbus aircraft. , the group operates the following aircraft:


title: EasyJet

text: In common with other low-cost carriers, EasyJet has a strategy of operating just one aircraft type. Initially it used Boeing 737 aircraft exclusively, but in October 2002 it ordered 120 Airbus A319 aircraft, plus 120 options. Since then, all orders have been from the Airbus A320 family, and the Boeings have been phased out. With the acquisition of GB Airways in 2007, easyJet inherited nine Airbus A320 and six Airbus A321 aircraft. This gave the airline some time to evaluate the feasibility of operating these larger aircraft. Based on this evaluation, EasyJet exchanged 25 A319 orders for A320s in July 2008 and later removed the A321 aircraft from the fleet.


title: EasyJet

text: On 18 June 2013, the airline announced an intention to acquire – subject to shareholder approval – 35 Airbus A320 aircraft, for delivery between 2015 and 2017, and 100 Airbus A320neo aircraft for delivery between 2017 and 2022. As part of the agreement, the airline will have purchase rights on a further 100 A320neo aircraft. The current generation A320s and fifty of the A320neos will replace current A319 aircraft.


title: EasyJet

text: On 15 May 2017, EasyJet announced the conversion of 30 A320neo orders into A321neo aircraft to be used on busier routes. The then-CEO of EasyJet, Carolyn McCall, stated of the change: "bigger planes would help EasyJet increase capacity in slot-constrained airports at peak times, such as Geneva, Amsterdam and London Gatwick". She added that the A321neos would help to cut costs by 9 per cent. The company took delivery of the first A321neo on 18 July 2018 at the Farnborough International Airshow.


title: EasyJet

text: On 20 November 2018 EasyJet ordered an additional 17 A320neo, taking their total neo order, including the A321neo, to 147.


title: EasyJet

text: On 19 November 2019 EasyJet ordered an additional 12 A320neo, taking the total neo orders, including the A321neo, to 159.


title: EasyJet

text: On 20 July 2022, during the Farnborough International Airshow, EasyJet confirmed the placing of an order for 56 A320neo, including an upsizing of 18 A320neo from their original order to the longer A321neo model. EasyJet was reported to have secured a significant reduction on the list price of the aircraft as part of their original 2013 deal with Airbus.


title: EasyJet

text: Initially, booking was by telephone only; as a means of promoting this, all of the airline's aircraft were painted with the booking telephone number. There is no incentive for travel agents to book flights on the airline because it does not pay commissions, which is an industry-standard practice for low-cost carriers.


title: EasyJet

text: In December 1997, one of EasyJet's design and advertising agencies suggested to Stelios Haji-Ioannou that he should consider trialling a website for direct bookings. Haji-Ioannou's reply was: "The Internet is for nerds, it will never make money for my business!" Other executives of the airline saw the potential and approved a website trial involving putting a different telephone reservation number on the website to track success. Once Haji-Ioannou saw the results, he changed his mind and an e-commerce website capable of offering real-time online booking went live in April 1998; this was the first such website for a low-cost carrier in Europe.


title: EasyJet

text: In December 2001, the airline switched from a third-party reservation system to an in-house system. Internet bookings were priced cheaper than booking by telephone to reflect the reduced call centre costs; as a further means of encouraging the use of the website, aircraft were repainted with the web address. Within a year, over 50% of bookings were made using the website; by April 2004, the figure had reportedly jumped to 98%.


title: EasyJet

text: The airline's main fleet, comprising Airbus A319, A320/A320neo and A321neo aircraft, carry up to 156, 180/186 and 235 passengers respectively, depending on layout. A typical Airbus A319 carries 150 or 156 passengers depending on layout in a single-class configuration, but as the airline does not serve meals on its shorter flights, it opted for smaller galleys and had a lavatory installed in unused space at the rear of the aircraft. The space saved by having smaller galleys allowed for the installation of 156 seats. Due to this seating arrangement, to satisfy safety requirements the airline's Airbus A319 aircraft have two pairs of overwing exits, instead of the standard one-pair configuration found on most Airbus A319 aircraft.


title: EasyJet

text: EasyJet does not provide complimentary meals or drinks on its flights (except for some occasional charter flights operated by the airline). Passengers may purchase items on board from the "Eat Drink Shop" buy on board programme. Onboard sales are an important part of the airline's ancillary revenue; gifts such as fragrances, cosmetics, gadgets as well as duty free cigarettes, rolling tobacco and a large selection of spirits. The airline's monthly inflight magazine is called "The Traveller".


title: EasyJet

text: The airline had previously provided in-flight entertainment (IFE) in some aircraft, such as the ex-GB Airways fleet, using drop-down screens on some Airbus aircraft; by 2018, all use of IFE had been discontinued. The airline offers headphones for purchase, along with a travel pillow and eyeshades, subject to stock. During 2017, 'Air Time' was introduced on some EasyJet Switzerland flights, which enables passengers to connect to watch a selection of films and read books through an on-board WiFi network; this service is provided by Rakuten.


title: EasyJet

text: Three distinct loyalty products are offered, tailored towards business and frequent flyers. These are Flexi Fare, EasyJet Plus and a new frequent traveller loyalty programme called Flight Club. Flexi Fare is a type of ticket that is usually more expensive than the regular fare and comparable to a business ticket with other airlines. This ticket offers additional flexibility, including unlimited free date changes within a set period, free route changes, complimentary checked baggage (1x20kg), an increased carry-on baggage allowance, and a £7.50 on-board refreshment voucher. EasyJet Plus is an annual subscription product targeted at frequent flyers, both business and leisure. This service offers free allocated seating (including extra legroom), priority check-in, fast-track security, speedy boarding and extra cabin baggage. The airline's loyalty programme is called Flight Club.


title: EasyJet

text: On 14 December 2004, EasyJet and Hotelopia, a subsidiary of First Choice Holidays, launched the co-branded EasyJetHotels accommodation booking service. EasyJetHotels offers accommodation products throughout the airline's network. Customers booking flights through the airline's website are provided with quotes for several hotels at their destination. Alternatively, customers can book accommodation separately at the EasyJetHotels website.


title: EasyJet

text: On 28 June 2007, the airline expanded its relationship with Hotelopia by launching EasyJetHolidays, which offers Travel Trust Association protected package holidays made up of EasyJet flights and Hotelopia accommodation products.


title: EasyJet

text: On 6 November 2010, the airline started a venture with Low Cost Travel Group, to offer flights dynamically packaged with Low Cost Travel Group's accommodation through the EasyJet Holidays website. As of March 2011, EasyJet Holidays has provided holidays and city breaks to all of the airline's routes.


title: EasyJet

text: A mid-November 2019 report indicated that the company planned to relaunch the package holiday business, after the bankruptcy of former competitor Thomas Cook."The total European package holidays market is worth around £61bn per year ... we know customers want holidays with various durations and not the traditional seven and 14 nights. The UK alone is a £13bn market and has grown by 6% annually," according to a company spokesperson.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city and one of the nine National Central Cities of China.


title: Wuhan

text: The name "Wuhan" came from the city's historical origin from the conglomeration of Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang, which are collectively known as the "Three Towns of Wuhan" (). Wuhan lies in the eastern Jianghan Plain, at the confluence of the Yangtze river and its largest tributary, the Han River, and is known as "Nine Provinces' Thoroughfare" ().


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan has historically served as a busy city port for commerce and trading. Other historical events taking place in Wuhan include the Wuchang Uprising of 1911, which led to the end of 2,000 years of dynastic rule. Wuhan was briefly the capital of China in 1927 under the left wing of the Kuomintang (KMT) government. The city later served as the wartime capital of China for ten months in 1937 during the WWII.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan is considered the political, economic, financial, commercial, cultural, and educational center of Central China. It is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads, and expressways passing through the city and connecting to other major cities. Because of its key role in domestic transportation, Wuhan is sometimes referred to as "the Chicago of China" by foreign sources. The "Golden Waterway" of the Yangtze River and the Han River traverse the urban area and divide Wuhan into the three districts of Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang. The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge crosses the Yangtze in the city. The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest power station in terms of installed capacity, is located nearby. Historically, Wuhan has suffered risks of flooding, prompting the government to alleviate the situation by introducing ecologically friendly absorption mechanisms.


title: Wuhan

text: While Wuhan has been a traditional manufacturing hub for decades, it is also one of the areas promoting modern industrial changes in China. Wuhan has three national development zones, four scientific and technological development parks, over 350 research institutes, 1,656 high tech enterprises, numerous enterprise incubators and investments from 230 Fortune Global 500 firms. It produced GDP (nominal) of US$274 billion in 2021. The Dongfeng Motor Corporation, an automobile manufacturer, is headquartered in Wuhan. The city is home to multiple notable institutes of higher education, including Wuhan University and the Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Wuhan is a major city in the world by scientific research outputs and it ranks 11th globally, 6th in the Asia-Pacific and 5th in China (after Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Guangzhou). In 2017, Wuhan was designated as a Creative City by UNESCO, in the field of design. Wuhan is classified as a Beta- (global second tier) city together with seven other cities in China, including Changsha, Dalian, Jinan, Shenyang, Xiamen, Xi'an and Zhengzhou by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Wuhan is also one of the world's top 100 financial centers, according to the Global Financial Centres Index.


title: Wuhan

text: On December 31, 2019, SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus, believed to have come from bats, that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, was first discovered in Wuhan and the city was the location of the first lockdown of the pandemic in January 2020.


title: Wuhan

text: The name "Wuhan" comes from the two major cities on the banks of the Yangtze River that make up the Wuhan metropolis: "Wu" refers to the city of Wuchang (), which lies on the southern bank of the Yangtze, while "Han" refers to the city of Hankou (), which lies on the northern bank of the Yangtze. "Hankou" means "Mouth of the Han", from its position at the confluence of the Han with the Yangtze River.


title: Wuhan

text: In 1926, the Northern Expedition reached the Wuhan area and it was decided to merge Hankou, Wuchang and Hanyang into one city in order to make a new capital for Nationalist China. On January 1, 1927, the resulting city was proclaimed as " (the traditional Chinese characters for 'Wuhan'), which was later simplified as " (also 'Wuhan').


title: Wuhan

text: The Wuhan area has been settled for 3,500 years. Panlongcheng, an archaeological site primarily associated with the Erligang culture ( BC) (being sparsely populated during the earlier Erlitou period), is located in modern-day Huangpi District of Wuhan.


title: Wuhan

text: During the Western Zhou the State of E, which gives its name to the single character abbreviation for Hubei province, controlled the present-day Wuchang area south of the Yangtze River. After the conquest of the E state in 863 BC, the present-day Wuhan area was controlled by the State of Chu for the rest of the Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou periods. After the State of Huang was conquered by State of Chu in the summer of 648 BC, the people of Huang were moved into the area in and around present-day Wuhan. Local geographical terms including the name of Wuhan's Huangpi District were named after the State of Huang. Chu was in turn conquered by Qin in 223 BC.


title: Wuhan

text: During the Han dynasty, Hanyang became a fairly busy port. The Battle of Xiakou in AD 203 and Battle of Jiangxia five years later were fought in the region over control of Jiangxia Commandery, territories of which included much of present-day eastern Hubei. In the winter of 208/9, 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 near the Yangtze River, with the cliffs near Wuhan identified as one of the potential locations. Around that time, walls were built to protect Hanyang (AD 206) and Wuchang (AD 223). The latter event marks the foundation of Wuhan. In AD 223, the Yellow Crane Tower, one of the Four Great Towers of China, was constructed on the Wuchang side of the Yangtze River by order of Sun Quan, leader of the Eastern Wu. The tower become a sacred site of Taoism.


title: Wuhan

text: Due to tensions between the Eastern Wu and Cao Wei kingdoms, in the autumn of 228, Cao Rui, grandson of Cao Cao and the second emperor of the state of Cao Wei, ordered the general Man Chong to lead troops to Xiakou (; in present-day Wuhan). In 279, Wang Jun and his army conquered strategic locations in Wu territory such as Xiling (in present-day Yichang, Hubei), Xiakou (; present-day Hankou) and Wuchang (; present-day Ezhou, Hubei).


title: Wuhan

text: During the Northern and Southern dynasties period, the Wuhan area was part of the successive Southern dynasty states Liu Song (420–479), Southern Qi (479–502), Liang, and Western Liang.


title: Wuhan

text: In fall 550, Hou Jing sent Ren Yue to attack both Xiao Daxin and Xiao Fan's son Xiao Si (). Ren killed Xiao Si in battle, and Xiao Daxin, unable to resist, surrendered, allowing Hou to take his domain under control. Meanwhile, Xiao Guan, who had by now settled at Jiangxia (, in modern Wuhan), was planning to attack Hou, but this drew Xiao Yi's ire—believing that Xiao Guan was intending to contend for the throne—and he sent Wang to attack Xiao Guan. In summer 567, Chen Xu commissioned Wu Mingche as the governor of Xiang Province and had him command a major part of the troops against Hua, along with Chunyu Liang (). The opposing sides met at Zhuankou (, in modern Wuhan).


title: Wuhan

text: The city has long been renowned as a center for the arts (especially poetry) and for intellectual studies. Cui Hao, a celebrated poet of the Tang dynasty, visited the Yellow Crane Tower in the early 8th century; his poem made it the most celebrated building in southern China.


title: Wuhan

text: In spring 877, Wang Xianzhi captured E Prefecture (, in modern Wuhan). He then returned north, joining forces with Huang again, and they surrounded Song Wei at Song Prefecture (, in modern Shangqiu, Henan). In winter 877, Huang Chao pillaged Qi and Huang (, in modern Wuhan) Prefectures.


title: Wuhan

text: Before Kublai Khan arrived in 1259, word reached him that Möngke had died. Kublai decided to keep the death of his brother secret and continued the attack on the Wuhan area, near the Yangtze. The present-day Wuying Pagoda was constructed at the end of the Song dynasty between attacks by the Mongolian forces. Under the Mongol rulers (Yuan dynasty) (after 1301), the Wuchang prefecture, headquartered in the town, became the capital of Hubei province. Hankou, from the Ming to late Qing, was under the administration of the local government in Hanyang, although it was already one of the four major national markets () of the Ming dynasty.


title: Wuhan

text: By the dawn of the 18th century, Hankou had become one of China's top four trading centers. In the late 19th century, railroads were extended on a north–south axis through the city, making Wuhan an important transshipment point between rail and river traffic. Also during this period foreign powers extracted mercantile concessions, with the riverfront of Hankou being divided up into foreign-controlled merchant districts. These districts contained trading firm offices, warehouses, and docking facilities. The French had a concession in Hankou. During the Taiping kingdom, the Wuhan area was controlled for many years by rebel forces and the Yellow Crane Tower, Xingfu Temple, Zhuodaoquan Temple and other buildings were repurposed or damaged. During the Second Opium War (known in the West as the Arrow War, 1856–1860), the government of the Qing dynasty was defeated by the western powers and signed the Treaties of Tianjin and the Convention of Peking, which stipulated eleven cities or regions (including Hankou) as trading ports. In December 1858, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, High Commissioner to China, led four warships up the Yangtze River in Wuhan to collect the information needed for opening the trading port in Wuhan.


title: Wuhan

text: In the spring of 1861, Counselor Harry Smith Parkes and Admiral Herbert were sent to Wuhan to open a trading port. On the basis of the Convention of Peking, Parkes concluded the Hankou Lend-Lease Treaty with Guan Wen, the governor-general of Hunan and Hubei. It brought an area of along the Yangtze River (from latter-day Jianghan Road to Hezuo Road) to become a British Concession and permitted Britain to set up its consulate in the concession.


title: Wuhan

text: In 1889, Zhang Zhidong was transferred from Viceroy of Liangguang (Guangdong and Guangxi provinces) to Viceroy of Huguang (Hunan and Hubei provinces). He governed the province for 18 years, until 1907. During this period, he elucidated the theory of "Chinese learning as the basis, Western learning for application," known as the ti-yong ideal. He set up many heavy industries, founded Hanyang Steel Plant, Daye Iron Mine, Pingxiang Coal Mine and Hubei Arsenal and set up local textile industries, boosting the flourishing modern industry in Wuhan. Meanwhile, he initiated education reform, opened dozens of modern educational organizations successively, such as Lianghu (Hunan and Hubei) Academy of Classical Learning, Civil General Institute, Military General Institute, Foreign Languages Institute and Lianghu (Hunan and Hubei) General Normal School, and selected a great many students for study overseas, which well promoted the development of China's modern education. Furthermore, he trained a modern military and organized a modern army including a "zhen" and a "xie" (both "zhen" and "xie" are military units in the Qing dynasty) in Hubei.


title: Wuhan

text: Originally known as the Hubei Arsenal, the Hanyang Arsenal was founded in 1891, who diverted funds from the Nanyang Fleet in Guangdong to build the arsenal. It cost about 250,000 pounds sterling and was built in 4 years. On April 23, 1894, construction was completed and the arsenal, occupying some , could start production of small-caliber cannons. It built magazine-fed rifles, Gruson quick fire guns, and cartridges.


title: Wuhan

text: By 1900, according to Collier's magazine, Hankou, the Yangtze River boom town, was "the St. Louis and Chicago of China." On October 10, 1911, Sun Yat-sen's followers launched the Wuchang Uprising, which led to the collapse of the Qing state and 2,000 years of dynastic rule, as well as the establishment of the Republic of China.


title: Wuhan

text: The Wuchang Uprising of October 1911, which overthrew the Qing dynasty, originated in Wuhan. Before the uprising, anti-Qing secret societies were active in Wuhan. In September 1911, the outbreak of the protests in Sichuan forced the Qing authorities to send part of the New Army garrisoned in Wuhan to suppress the rebellion. On September 14 the Literary Society () and the Progressive Association (), two local revolutionary organizations in Hubei, set up joint headquarters in Wuchang and planned for an uprising. On the morning of October 9, a bomb at the office of the political arrangement exploded prematurely and alerted local authorities. The proclamation for the uprising, beadroll and the revolutionaries’ official seal fell into the hands of Rui Cheng, the governor-general of Hunan and Hubei, who demolished the uprising headquarters the same day and set out to arrest the revolutionaries listed in the beadroll. This forced the revolutionaries to launch the uprising earlier than planned.


title: Wuhan

text: On the night of October 10, the revolutionaries fired shots to signal the uprising at the engineering barracks of Hubei New Army. They then led the New Army of all barracks to join the revolution. Under the guidance of Wu Zhaolin, Cai Jimin and others, this revolutionary army seized the official residence of the governor and government offices. Rui Cheng fled in panic into the Chuyu ship. Zhang Biao, the commander of the Qing army, also fled the city. On the morning of the 11th, the revolutionary army took the whole city of Wuchang, but leaders such as Jiang Yiwu and Sun Wu disappeared. Thus the leaderless revolutionary army recommended Li Yuanhong, the assistant governor of the Qing army, as the commander-in-chief. Li founded the Hubei Military Government, proclaimed the abolition of the Qing rule in Hubei, the founding of the Republic of China and published an open telegram calling for other provinces to join the revolution.


title: Wuhan

text: As the revolution spread to other parts of the country, the Qing government concentrated loyalist military forces to suppress the uprising in Wuhan. From October 17 to December 1, the revolutionary army and local volunteers defended the city in the Battle of Yangxia against better armed and more numerous Qing forces commanded by Yuan Shikai. Huang Xing would arrive in Wuhan in early November to take command of the revolutionary army. After fierce fighting and heavy casualties, Qing forces seized Hankou and Hanyang. But Yuan agreed to halt the advance on Wuchang and participated in peace talks, which would eventually lead to the return of Sun Yat-sen from exile, founding of the Republic of China on January 1, 1912. Through the Wuchang Uprising, Wuhan is known as the birthplace of the Xinhai Revolution, named after the Xinhai year on the Chinese calendar. The city has several museums and memorials to the revolution and the thousands of martyrs who died defending the revolution.


title: Wuhan

text: With the northern extension of the Northern Expedition, the center of the Great Revolution shifted from the Pearl River basin to the Yangtze River basin. On November 26, the Kuomintang Central Political Committee decided to move the capital from Guangzhou to Wuhan. In mid-December, most of the KMT central executive commissioners and national government commissioners arrived in Wuhan, set up the temporary joint conference of central executive commissioners and National Government commissioners, performed the top functions of central party headquarters and National Government, declared they would work in Wuhan on January 1, 1927, and decided to combine the towns of Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang into Wuhan City, called "Capital District". The new national government, later known as "Wuhan nationalist government", was based in the Nanyang Building in Hankou, while the central party headquarters and other organizations chose their locations in Hankou or Wuchang.


title: Wuhan

text: In March 1927, Mao Zedong appeared at the Third Plenum of the KMT Central Executive Committee in Wuhan, which sought to strip General Chiang of his power by appointing Wang Jingwei leader. The first phase of the Northern Expedition was interrupted by the political split in the Kuomintang following the formation of the Nanjing faction in April 1927 against the existing faction in Wuhan. Members of the Chinese Communist Party, who had survived the April 12 massacre, met at Wuhan and reelected Chen Duxiu (Ch'en Tu-hsiu) as the Party's Secretary General. The split was partially motivated by the purge of the Communists within the party, which marked the end of the First United Front, and Chiang Kai-shek briefly stepped down as the commander of the National Revolutionary Army.


title: Wuhan

text: In June 1927, Stalin sent a telegram to the Communists in Wuhan, calling for the mobilization of an army of workers and peasants. This alarmed Wang Jingwei, who decided to break with the Communists and come to terms with Chiang Kai-shek. The Wuhan coup was a political shift made on July 15, 1927, by Wang Jingwei towards Chiang Kai-shek, and his Shanghai-based rival in the Kuomintang. The Wuhan Nationalist Government was established in Wuhan on February 21, 1927, and ended by August 19, 1927. After the end of the Northern Expedition, Hankou was elevated to a centrally-controlled municipality.


title: Wuhan

text: In the 1931 China floods, one of the deadliest flood disasters in world history, Wuhan was a refuge for flood victims from outlying areas, who had been arriving since the late spring. But when the city itself was inundated in the early summer, and after a catastrophic dike failure just before 6:00 AM on July 27, an estimated 782,189 urban citizens and rural refugees were left homeless. The flood covered an area of 32 square miles and the city was flooded under many feet of water for close to three months. Large numbers gathered on flood islands throughout the city, with 30,000 sheltering on a railway embankment in central Hankou. With little food and a complete breakdown in sanitation, thousands soon began to succumb to diseases. Jin Shilong, Senior Engineer at the Hubei Flood Prevention Agency, described the flooding:There was no warning, only a sudden great wall of water. Most of Wuhan's buildings in those days were only one story high, and for many people there was no escape – they died by the tens of thousands. ... I was just coming off duty at the company's main office, a fairly new three-story building near the center of town ... When I heard the terrible noise and saw the wall of water coming, I raced to the top story of the building. ... I was in one of the tallest and strongest buildings left standing. At that time no one knew whether the water would subside or rise even higher.The high-water mark was reached on August 19 at Hankou, with the water level exceeding above normal. In 1936, when natural disaster struck Central China with widespread flooding affecting Hebei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Wuhan and Chongqing caused by the Yangtze and Huai Rivers bursting their banks, Ong Seok Kim, as Chairman of the Sitiawan Fundraising and Disaster Relief Committee, raised money and materials in support of the victims.


title: Wuhan

text: During the Second Sino-Japanese War and following the fall of Nanking in December 1937, Wuhan had become the provisional capital of China's Kuomintang government, and became another focal point of pitched air battles beginning in early 1938 between modern monoplane bomber and fighter aircraft of the Imperial Japanese forces and the Chinese Air Force, which included support from the Soviet Volunteer Group in both planes and personnel, as U.S. support in war materials waned.As the battle raged on through 1938, Wuhan and the surrounding region had become the site of the Battle of Wuhan. After being taken by the Japanese in late 1938, Wuhan became a major Japanese logistics center for operations in southern China.


title: Wuhan

text: In early October 1938, Japanese troops moved east and north in the outskirts of Wuhan. As a result, numerous companies and enterprises and large numbers of people had to withdraw from Wuhan to the west of Hubei and Sichuan. The KMT navy undertook the responsibility of defending the Yangtze River on patrol and covering the withdrawal. On October 24, while overseeing the waters of the Yangtze River near the town of Jinkou (Jiangxia District in Wuhan) in Wuchang, the KMT gunboat "Zhongshan" came up against six Japanese aircraft. Though two were eventually shot down, the "Zhongshan" sank with 25 casualties. Raised from the bottom of the Yangtze River in 1997, and restored at a local shipyard, the "Zhongshan" has been moved to a purpose-built museum in Wuhan's suburban Jiangxia District, which opened on September 26, 2011.


title: Wuhan

text: As a key center on the Yangtze, Wuhan was an important base for Japanese operations in China. On December 18, 1944, Wuhan was bombed by 77 American bombers that set off a firestorm that destroyed much of the city. For the next three days, Wuhan was bombed by the Americans, destroying all of the docks and warehouses of Wuhan, as well as the Japanese air bases in the city. The air raids killed thousands of Chinese civilians which American bombers did not know. "According to casualty statistics compiled by Hankou city in 1946, more than 20,000 were killed or injured in the December bombings of 1944."


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan returned to Chinese control in September 1945. Administratively, Wuchang and Hanyang were initially combined into a new City of Wuchang, but in October 1946 were separated into the City of Wuchang (including Wuchang only) and the County of Hanyang. Hankou became a centrally controlled municipality in August 1947. Militarily, the Wuhan Forward Headquarters was established in Wuhan, headed by Bai Chongxi.


title: Wuhan

text: During the later stages of the Chinese Civil War, Bai sought to broker peace, proposing that the Communist Party could rule northern China while the Nationalist government retained southern China. This was rejected, and on May 15, 1949, Bai and the Wuhan garrison retreated from the city. People's Liberation Army troops entered Wuhan on the afternoon of Monday, May 16, 1949.


title: Wuhan

text: The Changjiang Water Resources Commission was reestablished in February 1950 with its headquarters in Wuhan. From June to September 1954, the Yangtze River Floods were a series of catastrophic floodings that occurred mostly in Hubei Province. Due to an unusually high volume of precipitation as well as an extraordinarily long rainy season in the middle stretch of the Yangtze River late in the spring of 1954, the river started to rise above its usual level in around late June. In 1969, a large stone monument was erected in the riverside park in Hankou honoring the heroic deeds in fighting the 1954 Yangtze River floods.


title: Wuhan

text: Before construction of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, Hunslet Engine Company built two extra heavy 0-8-0 locomotives for loading the train ferries for crossing the Yangtze River in Wuhan.


title: Wuhan

text: The project of building the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, also known as the First Yangtze River Bridge, was regarded as one of the key projects during the first five-year plan. On October 25, 1955, construction began on the bridge proper. The same day in 1957, the whole project was completed and an opening-to-traffic ceremony was held on October 15. The First Yangtze River Bridge united the Beijing–Hankou railway with the Guangdong–Hankou railway into the Beijing–Guangzhou railway, making Wuhan a 'thoroughfare to nine provinces' () in name and in fact.


title: Wuhan

text: After Chengdu Conference, Mao went to Chongqing and Wuhan in April to inspect the countryside and factories. In Wuhan, he called all the leaders of provinces and municipalities who had not attended Chengdu Conference to report their work. Tian Jiaying, the secretary of Mao, said that Wuhan Conference was a supplement to Chengdu Conference.


title: Wuhan

text: In July 1967, civil strife struck the city in the Wuhan Incident ("July 20th Incident"), an armed conflict between two hostile groups who were fighting for control over the city at the height of the Cultural Revolution.


title: Wuhan

text: In 1981, the Wuhan City Government commenced reconstruction of the Yellow Crane Tower at a new location, about from the original site, and it was completed in 1985. In 1957, the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge was built with one trestle of the bridge on the site of the tower, which had been last destroyed in 1884.


title: Wuhan

text: During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, students in Wuhan blocked the Yangtze River Railway bridge and another 4,000 gathered at the railway station. About one thousand students staged a railroad 'sit-in'. Rail traffic on the Beijing-Guangzhou and Wuhan-Dalian lines was interrupted. The students also urged employees of major state-owned enterprises to go on strike. The situation was so tense that residents reportedly began a bank run and resorted to panic-buying.


title: Wuhan

text: In the wake of the United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999, protests broke out throughout China, including in Wuhan.


title: Wuhan

text: On June 22, 2000, a Wuhan Airlines flight from Enshi to Wuhan was forced to circle for 30 minutes due to thunderstorms. The aircraft eventually crashed on the banks of Han River in Hanyang District, all on-board perished (there were varying accounts of number of crews and passengers). In addition, the crash also killed 7 people on the ground.


title: Wuhan

text: Chinese protesters organized boycotts of the French-owned retail chain Carrefour in major Chinese cities including Kunming, Hefei and Wuhan, accusing the French nation of pro-secessionist conspiracy and anti-Chinese racism. The BBC reported that hundreds of people demonstrated in Beijing, Wuhan, Hefei, Kunming and Qingdao. On May 19, 2011, Fang Binxing, the Principal of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (also known as "Father of China's Great Fire Wall") was hit on the chest by a shoe thrown at him by a Huazhong University of Science and Technology student who calls herself "hanjunyi" (, or ) while Fang was giving a lecture at Wuhan University.


title: Wuhan

text: The city has been subject to devastating floods, which are now supposed to be controlled by the ambitious Three Gorges Dam, a project which was completed in 2008. The 2008 Chinese winter storms damaged water supply equipment in Wuhan: up to 100,000 people were out of running water when several water pipes burst, cutting the supply to local households. The 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat wave hit Wuhan on July 3.


title: Wuhan

text: In the 2010 China floods, the Han River at Wuhan experienced its worst flooding in twenty years, as officials continued sandbagging efforts along the Han and Yangtze Rivers in the city and checked reservoirs. In the 2011 China floods, Wuhan was flooded, with parts of the city losing power. In the 2016 China floods, Wuhan saw of rainfall during the first week of July, surpassing the record that fell on the city in 1991. A red alert for heavy rainfall was issued on July 2, the same day that eight people died after a section of a tall wall collapsed on top of them. The city's subway system, the Wuhan Metro was partially submerged as was the main railway station. At least 14 city residents were killed, one was missing, and more than 80,000 were relocated.


title: Wuhan

text: In December 2019, SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, was first discovered in Wuhan, and the city was the location of the first lockdown of the pandemic in January 2020. Wuhan and other Hubei cities were placed under lockdown for nearly three months to contain the disease. On April 8, 2020, the Wuhan lockdown officially came to an end after no new domestic cases were reported in Hubei province. The virus is believed to have been a mutation of a virus that existed in bats which came from a wet market in Wuhan, although no bats are sold there. There were, however, some 38 other species of animals offered, including marmots, raccoons, badgers, hedgehogs, peacocks, and various reptiles, including some endangered species.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan is in east-central Hubei, at latitude 29° 58'–31° 22' N and longitude 113° 41'–115° 05' E. Wuhan sits at the confluence of the Han River flowing into the Yangtze River at the East of the Jianghan Plain along the Yangtze's middle reaches.


title: Wuhan

text: The metropolitan area comprises three parts—Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang—commonly called the "Three Towns of Wuhan" (hence the name "Wuhan", combining "Wu" from the first city and "Han" from the other two). The consolidation of these cities occurred in 1927 and Wuhan was thereby established. The three former cities face each other across the rivers and are linked by bridges, including one of the first modern bridges in China, known as the "First Bridge".


title: Wuhan

text: It is simple in terrain—low and flat in the middle and hilly in the south, with the Yangtze and Han rivers winding through the city. The She River enters the Yangtze in Huangpi District. Wuhan occupies a land area of , most of which is alluvial plain and decorated with hills and a great number of lakes and ponds. Water makes up one quarter of Wuhan's urban territory, which is the highest percentage among major cities in China. Wuhan has nearly 200 lakes, including the East Lake of 33 km2, and Tangxun Lake, which are the largest lakes entirely within a city in China.


title: Wuhan

text: Other well-known lakes include South Lake and Sand Lake. Liangzi Lake, the largest lake by surface area in Hubei province, is located in the southeast of Jiangxia District. At above sea level, the highest point in Wuhan is the main peak of Yunwu Mountain () in northwestern Huangpi District. There are also several mountains within the city limits of Wuhan including Mount Luojia () in Wuchang District as well as Mount Hong () and Mount Yujia () in Hongshan District.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan's climate is humid subtropical (Köppen "Cfa") with abundant rainfall in summer and four distinctive seasons. Wuhan is known for its humid summers, when dewpoints can often reach or more. Historically, along with Chongqing and Nanjing, Wuhan is referred to as one of the "Three Furnacelike Cities" along the Yangtze River for their hot summers. However, the climate data of recent years suggests that Wuhan is no longer among the top tier of "The hottest cities in summer" list, the New Four Furnacelike Cities are Chongqing, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, and Nanchang. Spring and autumn are generally mild, while winter is cool with quite low rainfall and occasional snow. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to in July. Annual precipitation totals just under , the majority of which falls from April to July; the annual mean temperature is , the frost-free period lasts 211 to 272 days. With monthly possible sunshine percentage ranging from 31 percent in March to 59 percent in August, the city proper receives 1,865 hours of bright sunshine annually. Extreme low and high temperatures recorded are on January 31, 1977, and on July 27, 2017 (unofficial record of in 1934).


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan is a sub-provincial city. Municipal government is regulated by the local Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by the Wuhan CCP Secretary (), Wang Zhonglin (). The local CCP issues administrative orders, collects taxes, manages the economy, and directs a standing committee of the Municipal People's Congress in making policy decisions and overseeing the local government.


title: Wuhan

text: Government officials include the mayor (), Zhou Xianwang (), and vice-mayors. Numerous bureaus focus on law, public security, and other affairs.


title: Wuhan

text: The sub-provincial city of Wuhan currently comprises 13 districts. As of the Sixth Census of China in 2010, the 13 districts comprised 160 township-level divisions including 156 subdistricts, 3 towns, 1 townships.


title: Wuhan

text: The current U.S. Consul General, the Honorable Mr. Jamie Fouss, was posted to Wuhan in August 2017. The office of the U.S. Consulate General, Central China (located in Wuhan) celebrated its official opening on November 20, 2008, and is the first new American consulate in China in over 20 years.


title: Wuhan

text: Up until the 21st century, Wuhan was largely an agricultural region. Since 2004 it has been a focal point of the Rise of Central China Plan, which aims to build less-developed inland economies into hubs of advanced manufacturing.


title: Wuhan

text: Since 1890, the steel industry has been the backbone of Wuhan's industry. In 2010, automobile industry exceeded GDP for Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation (WISCO) steel for the first time. There are 5 car manufacturers, including Dongfeng Honda, Citroen, Shanghai GM, DFM Passenger Vehicle and Dongfeng Renault. Dongfeng-Citroen Automobile Co., Ltd is headquartered in the city.


title: Wuhan

text: As of 2016, Wuhan has attracted foreign investment from over 80 countries, with 5,973 foreign-invested enterprises established in the city with a total capital injection of $22.45 billion USD. Among these, about 50 French companies including Renault and PSA Group have operations in the city, representing over one third of French investment in China, and the highest level of French investment in any Chinese city.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan is an important center for economy, trade, finance, transportation, information technology, and education in China. Its major industries include optic-electronic, automobile manufacturing, iron and steel manufacturing, new pharmaceutical sector, biology engineering, new materials industry and environmental protection. Environmental sustainability is highlighted in Wuhan's list of emerging industries, which include energy efficiency technology and renewable energy.


title: Wuhan

text: As of 2021, Wuhan is ranked among the world's top 100 financial centers, according to the Global Financial Centres Index.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone is a national level industrial zone incorporated in 1993. Its current zone size is about 10–25 square km and it plans to expand to 25–50 square km. Industries encouraged in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone include Auto-mobile Production/Assembly, Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals Production and Processing, Food/Beverage Processing, Heavy Industry, and Telecommunications Equipment.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan Export Processing Zone was established in 2000. It is located in Wuhan Economic and Technology Development Zone, planned to cover of land. The first area has already been created.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan Donghu New Technology Development Zone is a national level high-tech development zone. Optical-electronics, telecommunications, and equipment manufacturing are the core industries of Wuhan East Lake High-Tech Development Zone (ELHTZ) while software outsourcing and electronics are also encouraged. ELHTZ is China's largest production center for optoelectronic products with key players like Yangtze Optical Fiber and Cable, (the largest fiber-optical cable maker in China), and Fiberhome Telecommunications. Wuhan Donghu New Technology Development Zone also represents the development center for China's laser industry with key players such as HG Tech and Chutian Laser being based in the zone.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan Optical Valley (Guanggu) Software Park is located in Wuhan Donghu New Technology Development Zone. Wuhan Optics Valley Software Park is jointly developed by East Lake High-Tech Development Zone and Dalian Software Park Co., Ltd. The planned area is with total floor area of . The zone is away from the 316 National Highway and is away from the Wuhan Tianhe Airport.


title: Wuhan

text: Biolake is an industrial base established in 2008 in the Optics Valley of China. Located in East Lake New Technology Development Zone of Wuhan, Biolake covers , and has six parks including Bio-innovation Park, Bio-pharma Park, Bio-agriculture Park, Bio-manufacturing Park, Medical Device Park and Medical Health Park, to accommodate both research activities and living.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan is the most populous city in Central China and among the most populous in China. In the Seventh Census of China in 2020, Wuhan was home to 12,326,500 inhabitants, a 25.97% increase by 2.5411 million compared to the last census in 2010. 2010-2020 is the fastest growing 10 years in history since the census was established, averaging 2.34% annually, and it was the first time that Wuhan's population reached 10 million.


title: Wuhan

text: The encompassing metropolitan area was estimated by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) to have, , a population of 19 million.


title: Wuhan

text: As of November 2019, urban development status considering both spatial and socioeconomic processes has been examined using Night Time Lighting data and land cover data as proxies; it showed Wuhan's high concentration


title: Wuhan

text: According to a survey published in 2017, 79.2% of the population of Wuhan are either irreligious or practice worship of gods and ancestors; among these 0.9% are Taoists. Among other religious doctrines, 14.7% of the population adheres to Buddhism, 2.9% to Protestantism, 0.3% to Catholicism and 1.6% to Islam, and 1.6% of the population adheres to unspecified other religions.


title: Wuhan

text: China Railway Wuhan Group manages the Wuhan Railway Hub. Wuhan Railway Hub is considered one of the four key railway hubs of China. The city of Wuhan is served by three major railway stations: the Hankou railway station in Hankou, the Wuchang railway station in Wuchang, and the Wuhan railway station, located in a newly developed area east of the East Lake (Hongshan District). As the stations are many miles apart, it is important for passengers to be aware of the particular station(s) used by a particular train.


title: Wuhan

text: The (original) Hankou Station was the terminus for the Jinghan railway from Beijing, while the Wuchang Station was the terminus for the Yuehan railway to Guangzhou. Since the construction of the First Yangtze Bridge and the linking of the two lines into the Jingguang railway, both Hankou and Wuchang stations have been served by trains going to all directions, which contrasts with the situation in such cities as New York or Moscow, where different stations serve different directions.


title: Wuhan

text: With the opening of the Hefei-Wuhan high-speed railway on April 1, 2009, Wuhan became served by high-speed trains with Hefei, Nanjing, and Shanghai; several trains a day now connect the city with Shanghai, getting there in under six hours. As of early 2010, most of these express trains leave from the Hankou railway station.


title: Wuhan

text: In 2006, construction began on the new Wuhan railway station with 11 platforms, located on the northeastern outskirts of the city. In December 2009, the station was opened, as China unveiled its second high-speed train with scheduled runs from Guangzhou to Wuhan. Billed as the fastest train in the world, it can reach a speed of . The travel time between the two cities has been reduced from ten and a half hours to just three. The rail service has been extended north to Beijing.


title: Wuhan

text: , the new Wuhan railway station is primarily used by the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed trains, while most regular trains to other destinations continue to use the Hankou and Wuchang stations.


title: Wuhan

text: Construction work is carried out on several lines of the new Wuhan Metropolitan Area intercity railway, which will eventually connect Wuhan's three main rail terminals with several stations throughout the city's outer areas and farther suburbs, as well as with the nearby cities of Xianning, Huangshi, Huanggang, and Xiaogan. The first line of the system, the one to Xianning, opened for passenger operations at the end of 2013. The line to Xiaogen opened on December 1, 2016, and it was extended with the opening of the Wuhan–Shiyan high-speed railway to Shiyan on November 29, 2019.


title: Wuhan

text: The main freight railway station and classification yard of the Wuhan metropolitan area is the extensive Wuhan North railway station, with 112 tracks and over 650 switches. It is located in of Huangpi District, located north of the Wuhan Station and from Hankou Station.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan Metro is a rapid transit system serving the city of Wuhan. Owned and operated by Wuhan Metro Group Co., Ltd., the network now includes 11 lines, 282 stations, and of route length. Line 1, the first line in the system, opened on July 28, 2004, making Wuhan the seventh city in mainland China with a rapid transit system, after Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Changchun, and Dalian. Line 2 opened on December 28, 2012, and is the first underground metro line crossing the Yangtze River. Commuting across the Yangtze River and Han River has been the bottleneck of Wuhan traffic. However, the appearance of Wuhan Metro greatly relieved this problem. With 1.22 billion annual passengers in 2019, Wuhan Metro is the sixth-busiest rapid transit system in mainland China. Wuhan Metro is a rapidly developing metro system. There are a number of lines or sections under construction. The government of Wuhan City promised the citizens that at least two lines or sections open every year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire network was out of service from January 23 to March 27, 2020.


title: Wuhan

text: Trams were brought to the streets of Wuhan on July 28, 2017, with the first line (Auto-city T1 Line) opened that day. The trams under construction or planning in Wuhan are:


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan is a major hub for maritime transport in central China. The Port of Wuhan provide services for the local population and shipping services.


title: Wuhan

text: Located on the banks of the Yangtze River, Wuhan has a long history of ferry services. Modern ferry services were established in 1900 by steam boat. In 1937, a train ferry was established to transport train cars from Hankou to Wuchang. There are numbered stops around Wuhan where people can get on and off the ferry and there is a tourist ferry in the night.


title: Wuhan

text: Currently, ferry services are provided by the Wuhan Ferry Company. In 2010, the company bought ten new ships to replace those that had been in service for 29 years.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan Tianhe International Airport is one of the busiest airports in central China. The airport opened in April 1995 to replace the old Hankou Wangjiadun Airport and Nanhu Airport as the major airport of Wuhan. It is located in Wuhan's suburban Huangpi District, north of Wuhan city proper. The extension of Line 2 of Wuhan Metro to Tianhe Airport opened on December 28, 2016. It has also been selected as China's fourth international hub airport after Beijing Capital, Shanghai Pudong and Guangzhou Baiyun. A second terminal was completed in March 2008, having been started in February 2005 with an investment of CNY 3.372 billion. International flights to neighboring Asian countries have also been enhanced, including direct flights to Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan. Terminal 3 has been available for service since early 2017.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan Hannan General Airport is an airport dedicated to general aviation, located in Hannan District of Wuhan. It is the largest airport in China that only handles general aviation. On December 1, 2017, construction began on Wuhan Caidian General Airport, another airport dedicated to general aviation, which is located in Caidian District of Wuhan.


title: Wuhan

text: , the Wuhan and Hangzhou Public Bicycle bike-share systems in China were the largest in the world, with around 90,000 and 60,000 bicycles respectively. In 2012 the Wuhan and Hangzhou Public Bicycle programs in China are the largest in the world, with around 90,000 and 60,000 bicycles respectively. China has seen a rise in private "dockless" bike shares with fleets that dwarf systems in size outside China. Initially, a number of traditional (third-generation) docked public bike systems operated by local municipal governments opened across China, with the largest ones being in Wuhan and Hangzhou. The first was introduced in Beijing in 2007. However, third-generation bike sharing is not considered successful for the majority cities in China. Bike sharing in Beijing virtually stopped and it also has encountered difficulties in Shanghai and Wuhan.


title: Wuhan

text: There are 35 higher educational institutions in Wuhan, making it a leading educational hub for China. Prominent institutions include Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Wuhan University. Three state-level development zones and many enterprise incubators are also significant in Wuhan's education and business development. Wuhan ranks third in China in overall strength of science and technology.


title: Wuhan

text: As of the end of 2013, in Wuhan there were 1,024 kindergartens with 224,300 children, 590 primary schools with 424,000 students, 369 general high schools with 314,000 students, 105 secondary vocational and technical schools with 98,600 students, and 80 colleges and universities with 966,400 undergraduates and junior college students and 107,400 postgraduate students. There are several international schools in Wuhan.


title: Wuhan

text: Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), located in the Optics Valley of China near East Lake, is a Project 985 and Class A Double First Class University. HUST manages Wuhan National Laboratories for Opto-electronics (WNLO), which is one of the five national laboratories in China. HUST is also one of four Chinese universities eligible to run the national laboratory and the national major science and technology infrastructure. Founded in 1953 as Huazhong Institute of Technology, it combined with three other universities (including former Tongji Medical University founded in 1907) in 2000 to form the new HUST, and has 42 schools and departments covering 12 comprehensive disciplines. HUST has 12 Fellows of Chinese Academy of Sciences and 17 Fellows of Chinese Academy of Engineering. As of 2022, the U.S. News' 2023 U.S. News & World Report ranked HUST 109th in the world, 15th in Asia and 6th in China, while the Academic Ranking of World Universities ranked the university 96th in the world, 14th in Asia and 8th in China. More than 2,000 international students from 120 countries pursue degrees at HUST.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan University is another Project 985 and Class A Double First Class University, which was ranked the 194th by the 2023 QS World University Rankings and 173rd by the 2023 Times Higher Education; established in 1893, the old Wuhan University absorbed three other schools (two of them being its spin-offs since the 1950s) in 2000 to become a university with 36 schools in 6 faculties. Since the 1950s it has received international students from more than 109 countries.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan contains three national development zones and four scientific and technological development parks, as well as numerous enterprise incubators, over 350 research institutes, 1470 high-tech enterprises, and over 400,000 experts and technicians.


title: Wuhan

text: Founded in 1958, the Wuhan Branch of Chinese Academy of Sciences is one of the twelve national branches of CAS. It is composed of 9 independent organizations, including the headquarters at Xiaohongshan, Wuchang. It has had a staff of 3,900, among which 8 are CAS fellows, and one is a Chinese Academy of Engineering fellow. As of 2013, the achievements gained by WHB had won 23 National Awards and 778 Provincial Awards. Wuhan Research Institute of Post and Telecommunications (now known as FiberHome Technologies Group) is the national center for optical communication research in China, and is where the first optical fiber in the country was produced. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is also operated by the CAS.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan University of Technology is another major national university with three main campuses located in the Wuchang District. Founded in the year 2000, it was merged from three major universities, Wuhan University of Technology (established in 1948), Wuhan Transportation University (established in 1946) and Wuhan Automotive Polytechnic University (established in 1958). Wuhan University of Technology, together with China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Huazhong Agricultural University, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law and Central China Normal University (or Huazhong Normal University), are the leading Chinese universities accredited by the Ministry of Education under the "State Project 211" for Chinese higher education institutions. Other major research universities have its seat in the city, including Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Hubei University, Hubei University of Technology, and South Central University for Nationalities.


title: Wuhan

text: The headquarters of Hubei Television is located in Wuchang District. Tortoise Mountain TV Tower is China's first self-developed TV tower, opened in 1986. The modern newspapers in Wuhan can be dated back to 1866, when "Hankow Times", a newspaper in English, was founded. Before 1949, more than 50 newspapers and magazines were published by foreigners in Wuhan. "Chao-wen Hsin-pao", founded by Ai Xiaomei in 1873, was the first Chinese newspaper to appear in Hankou (one of the cities that was merged into Wuhan). During the Northern Expedition era (1926–1928), journalism in Wuhan came to a climax; more than 120 newspapers and periodicals, including national newspapers such as "Central Daily News" and "Republican Daily News", were founded or published during this time. "Chutian Metropolis Daily" and "Wuhan Evening News" are two major local commercial tabloid newspapers. Both of them have entered the list of 100 most widely circulated newspapers of the world.


title: Wuhan

text: The plum blossom is the city's emblem, chosen partly because of the long history of local plum cultivation and use, and partly to recognize the plum's current economic significance in terms of cultivation and research. Local wild plums were used medicinally during the Qin and Han dynasties. Cultivation of the fruit began during the Song dynasty. Some traditional new year customs revolve around the planting of plums.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan natives speak a variety of Southwestern Mandarin Chinese referred to as Wuhan dialect that differs slightly between the districts of Wuhan, including Wuchang dialect in Wuchang District, Hankou dialect in the Hankou districts, Hanyang dialect in Hanyang District, and Qingshan dialect in Qingshan District.


title: Wuhan

text: Hubei cuisine is one of China's ten major styles of cooking. With a history of more than 2,000 years, Hubei cuisine, originating in ancient Chu cuisine, has developed a number of distinctive dishes, such as steamed blunt-snout bream in clear soup, preserved ham with flowering Chinese cabbage, and others. On the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, many in Wuhan eat (), an egg dish which is supposed to prevent illness in the coming year.


title: Wuhan

text: "No need to be particular about the recipes; all foods have their own uses. Rice wine and tangyuan are excellent midnight snacks, while fat bream and flowering Chinese cabbages are great delicacies." This attitude expressed in "Hankou Zhuzhici" reflects indirectly the eating habits and a wide variety of distinctive snacks with a long history in Wuhan, such as Qingshuizong (a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves) in the Period of the Warring States, Chunbinbian in Northern and Southern dynasties, mung bean jelly in the Sui dynasty, youguo (a deep-fried twisted dough stick) in the Song and Yuan dynasties, rice wine and mianwo in the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as three-delicacy stuffed skin of bean milk, tangbao (steamed dumpling filled with minced meat and gravy) and hot braised noodles (reganmian) in modern times.


title: Wuhan

text: "Guozao" () is a popular way to say 'having breakfast' in Wuhan, and a part of the city's culture. As a hub for land transport in China, Wuhan has gathered and mixed together various habits and customs from neighboring cities and provinces in all directions, which gives rise to a concentration of diverse cuisines from different places. The most famous place to "guozao" (have breakfast) is Hubu Street (), a 150-meter-long street in the neighborhood of Simenkou (). Along its short length one can find nearly all the traditional foods of Wuhan, such as:


title: Wuhan

text: Han opera, which is the local opera of Wuhan area, was one of China's oldest and most popular operas. During the late Qing dynasty, Han opera, blended with Hui opera, gave birth to Peking opera, the most popular opera in modern China. Thus Han opera has been called the "mother of Peking opera."


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan has a professional football team, Wuhan, that plays in the Chinese Super League. Xinhua Road Sport Center, the team's home stadium, with a capacity of 32,137, is located in the heart of the city next to Zhongshan Park. For the 2013 season, Wuhan Zall was promoted to the top-tier league of Chinese football, Chinese Super League, and relocated its home to Wuhan Sports Center Stadium, a modern stadium with 54,357 seats located in the suburbs of the city. However, the team did not play well in the ensuing season and was demoted back to China League One as the 2013 season ended. For financial and transportation reasons, the team moved back to Xinhua Road Sport Center in 2014.


title: Wuhan

text: The Wuhan Gators are a professional arena football team based in Wuhan. They are members of the China Arena Football League (CAFL).


title: Wuhan

text: The 13,000-seat Wuhan Gymnasium held the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship and was one of the venues for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. The 7th Military World Games were hosted in Wuhan from Oct 18 to 27, 2019.


title: Wuhan

text: The city has been the venue for the women's tennis tournament, the Wuhan Open, one of the WTA's Premier 5 tournaments, since 2014.


title: Wuhan

text: Wuhan has eleven bridges and one tunnel across the Yangtze River. The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, also called the First Bridge, was built over the Yangtze in 1957, carrying a railroad directly across the river between hills known as Snake Hill and Turtle Hill. Before this bridge was built it could take up to an entire day to barge railcars across. Including its approaches, it is long, and it accommodates both a double-track railway on a lower deck and a four-lane roadway above. It was built with the assistance of advisers from the Soviet Union.


title: Wuhan

text: The Second Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge built of prestressed concrete, has a central span of ; it is in length (including of the main bridge) and in width. Its main bridgeheads are high each, pulling 392 thick slanting cables together in the shape of double fans so that the central span of the bridge is well poised on the piers and the bridge's stability and vibration resistance are ensured. With six lanes on the deck, the bridge is designed to handle the daily passage of 50,000 motor vehicles. The bridge was completed in 1995.


title: Wuhan

text: The Third Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, also called Baishazhou Bridge, was completed in September 2000. Located southwest of the First Bridge, construction of Baishazhou Bridge started in 1997. With an investment of over 1.4 billion yuan (about ), the bridge, which is long and wide, has six lanes and has a capacity of 50,000 vehicles a day. The bridge is expected to serve as a major passage for the future Wuhan Ring Road, greatly easing the city's traffic and aiding local economic development.


title: Wuhan

text: The Yangluo Bridge carries Wuhan's Ring Road across the Yangtze in the city's eastern suburbs (connecting the Hongshan District with the Xinzhou District). It was opened on December 26, 2007.


title: Wuhan

text: The Wuhan Tianxingzhou Yangtze River Bridge crosses the Yangtze in the northeastern part of the city, downstream of the Second bridge. It is named after Tianxing Island ("Tianxingzhou"), above which it crosses the river. Built at a cost of 11 billion yuan, the 4,657-meter cable suspension bridge was opened on December 26, 2009, in time for the opening of the Wuhan railway station. It is a combined road and rail bridge, and carries the Wuhan–Guangzhou high-speed railway across the river.


title: Wuhan

text: The Yellow Crane Tower, historically one of the tallest buildings in Wuhan, is considered one of the Four Great Towers of China and was destroyed twelve times, both by warfare and by fire. The tower is classified as an AAAAA scenic area by the China National Tourism Administration. At in height, the Wuhan Center skyscraper, the tallest structure in Wuhan and in Central China, is the eighth tallest structure in China. The Minsheng Bank Building, the second tallest structure in Wuhan, was the tallest building in Wuhan when it was completed in 2007. It retained the title until Wuhan Center surpassed it in 2014. Wuhan World Trade Tower is a 273-meter (896 foot) tall skyscraper located in Wuhan. It became the tallest building in Wuhan after its completion in 1998. However, it was surpassed by the Minsheng Bank Building in 2007.


title: Wuhan

text: The Wuhan Greenland Center is a planned , 126-floor mixed-use skyscraper currently under construction and scheduled for completion in 2019. If completed as planned, it will be among the world's tallest structures, and one of the world's tallest buildings by occupiable floor height. The Phoenix Towers are proposed supertall skyscrapers planned for construction in Wuhan. At high, the towers would also be among the tallest structures in the world when completed.


title: Wuhan

text: The city of Arnhem has unilaterally ended its twinning with Wuhan on July 21, 2021, citing concerns about the Uyghur genocide.


title: Wuhan

text: In Chinese mythology, the Baiji ("Yangtze River dolphin") has many origin stories. In one legend, the Baiji was the daughter of a general who was deported from the city of Wuhan during a war. During his duty, the daughter ran away. Later, the general met a woman who told him how her father was a general, and when he realized that she was his daughter, he threw himself into the river out of shame. The daughter ran after him and also fell into the river. Before they were drowned, the daughter was transformed into a dolphin, and the general a porpoise.


title: Charmed (2018 TV series)

text: Charmed is an American fantasy drama television series developed by Jennie Snyder Urman, Jessica O'Toole, and Amy Rardin. It is a reboot of the WB series of the same name, created by Constance M. Burge, which originally aired from 1998 to 2006. "Charmed" premiered in the United States on October 14, 2018, on The CW. Carter Covington served as showrunner for the first season, before married duo Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro took over for the second and third seasons. Jeffrey Lieber, Joey Falco, and Nicki Renna replaced Kruger and Shapiro as showrunners for the fourth season.


title: Charmed (2018 TV series)

text: The first three seasons follow the lives of sisters Macy (Madeleine Mantock), Mel (Melonie Diaz) and Maggie (Sarah Jeffery), who, after the death of their mother, discover they are the Charmed Ones, the most powerful trio of good witches destined to protect both innocent lives and the world from demons and other dark forces. Each sister has an individual magical power, which is noticeably stronger when all three sisters work together as the "Power of Three" to defeat their enemies. The sisters are aided by a Whitelighter, Harry Greenwood (Rupert Evans), an advisor who protects and guides witches.


title: Charmed (2018 TV series)

text: The reboot is known for being more diverse than the original series by casting three women of color in the lead roles, and for its LGBT representation by making one of the sisters a lesbian. Urman explained that television viewers already "had a chance to see three white witches" on the original "Charmed", and that she was adamant on developing a different version of the series in which people of color and the LGBT community could see themselves represented onscreen and "be the hero of the story". The reboot sparked controversy from some cast members and fans of the original "Charmed"; Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano both criticized The CW's decision to reboot the series without any involvement from the original cast or crew, while fans campaigned via Twitter to stop the network from moving forward with the pilot episode.


title: Charmed (2018 TV series)

text: The first season of "Charmed", which aired on Sundays, helped The CW return to original programming on Sunday nights for the first time since the 2008–09 U.S. television season. "Charmed" was renewed for a fourth season in February 2021, which premiered on March 11, 2022. In May 2022, it was announced that the fourth season would be its final season.


title: Charmed (2018 TV series)

text: The series begins in the fictional college town of Hilltowne, Michigan, where sisters Mel (Melonie Diaz) and Maggie Vera (Sarah Jeffery) are living with their mother Marisol (Valerie Cruz), who shortly afterward is attacked and killed by an unknown dark force. Three months later, Mel and Maggie discover that they have an older half-sister, Macy Vaughn (Madeleine Mantock), who was kept a secret by their mother for years but recently moved to Hilltowne for a new job at the local university the sisters attend. When Macy meets her sisters for the first time at the family's Vera Manor, lightning flashes and the house's power goes out, indicating the sisters' magical powers have been activated now that all three of them are together. Macy receives the power of telekinesis, middle sister Mel can freeze time, and Maggie, the youngest, can hear people's thoughts. Soon afterward, their Whitelighter—an advisor who protects and guides witches—Harry Greenwood (Rupert Evans) gathers all three sisters together in their attic; he reveals to the sisters that they are witches and presents them with their family's "Book of Shadows"a spell book and guide to using the "Power of Three". Marisol had bound her daughters' powers when they were each born to protect them and let them live normal lives but was in the process of unbinding their powers on the night she was murdered. By the end of the first episode, Macy moves into the Vera Manor and the sisters ultimately accept their new destiny as the Charmed Ones, the most powerful trio of good witches who protect both innocent lives and the world from demons and other dark forces.


title: Charmed (2018 TV series)

text: The reboot changes several elements from the original "Charmed" series, including moving the fictional setting from San Francisco to Hilltowne; making the middle sister a lesbian; giving the youngest sister the power of telepathy instead of premonition; changing the family name from Halliwell to Vera; and having all three of the sisters' alliterative names begin with 'M' instead of 'P'. Additionally, the reboot has a more ethnically diverse cast: Mantock is Afro-Caribbean, Diaz is Puerto Rican, and Jeffery is African American, English and Indigenous Canadian. In the show, the sisters are of mixed ethnic background, having Latina, African-American and white heritage.


title: Charmed (2018 TV series)

text: It was originally thought that Macy was the half-sister, until the tenth episode of the first season revealed that Macy and Maggie are full sisters, sharing the same father, and Mel is the real half-sister, sharing the same mother as Macy and Maggie but a different father (Ray Vera).


title: Charmed (2018 TV series)

text: In a parallel to the original series, Macy dies at the end of the third season while fighting off evil, and in the fourth season, a new Charmed One, Michaela "Kaela" Danso is introduced in her place.