I continued my city walk at the stylish 604-meter-long Lihuangpi Road, featuring Russian and European-style heritage architecture, which is lined with cozy cafes, restaurants, bookstores and shops.

On sultry Wuhan nights, nothing revives the spirit like a bowl of spicy crayfish — at their peak succulence in the warmer months — washed down with an ice-cold beer.

The ritual is no accident. Hubei's rich aquatic ecosystem, combined with its innovative model of rice-crayfish cocultivation in paddy fields, has solidified the province's position as the largest crayfish production area in China.

After a hearty dinner of the crustaceans, I stepped aboard the Zhiyin cruise along the Yangtze River, which took me to the 1920s and '30s, via an innovative and immersive show.