Getting from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport to the city

The line starts here

• Wuhan Metro Line 2 begins at Tianhe Airport station, in Huangpi District in the north of the city, and ends at Fozuling in Jiangxia District in the south-east.
• That means no change of direction and no interchange to get moving. You board at the terminus, which is also the reason you can usually get a seat with luggage.
• Line 2 opened in stages: phase one in December 2012, phase two in December 2016, phase three in February 2019, which is when the line reached its present length.

Crossing the Yangtze

• Line 2 was the first underground rail line in China to cross the Yangtze. Wuhan is really three towns divided by two rivers, and that crossing is the whole point of the line.
• From the airport you can reach Hankou, Wuchang and the university districts on a single train.
• Trains run roughly 06:00 to 23:00 from both ends. That is the constraint on a late arrival: after 23:00 the metro is not an option.

The station itself

• It sits directly beneath the airport transport centre and was built as part of it, so the walk from arrivals is inside the complex.
• It is two levels underground, with a 14 metre island platform and a station box 422 metres long and 22.9 metres wide.
• The intercity railway station is in the same complex, running parallel to the metro, which is why the transport centre feels larger than an airport station normally does.

Landing in Wuhan

• Wuhan is the transport hinge of central China, and the airport reflects it: a very large share of the traffic is domestic and connecting.
• Summers here are famously hot and humid. The walk between the terminal and the transport centre is short and covered, which matters more than it sounds in July.
• Huangpi District is well north of the city. The metro ride into the centre is long by the standards of a European airport line, and that is normal here.