Wuhan, situated in the middle of Hubei Province, is a major city in China with a population of more than 9 million people. The area was first settled more than 3,000 years ago. In the 3rd century AD 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 (a recent movie about the battle) — took place in the vicinity of the cliffs near Wuhan.