Hubei is the home of the Three Gorges Project in the central Yangzi River Valley. Summers are hot and humid, and the winters are mild. Wuhan, the capital, is known as one of the "Three Furnaces." Hubei specializes in rice, wheat, cotton, oil-bearing crops, freshwater fish, lotus roots, and water chestnuts. Industrial products include yarn, edible oil, trucks and sulfuric acid. More selenium than was known to exist in the entire world together was discovered in Hubei in 1997. Wuhan, the capital is both the communications hub of the middle Yangzi region but also the rail hub. We lived in Wuhan in 1998-9. It is hot and humid. The 1998 Yangzi floods hit Hubei hard in terms of fatalities, homelessness and lost industrial and agricultural output. Wuhan was saved at the expense of the countryside.