About 800 km west of Shanghai, at the confluence of the Yangtze and Han rivers, Central China’s business, cultural and financial capital evolved in 1949 from a merger of three ancient cities: Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang.

Today according to AP, “it’s regaining its status as an economic dynamo”–a budding technology and automobile industry hub, where (says the local government) some 300 of the world’s 500 biggest companies, from Microsoft to Honda Motor, have set up.