Few people outside of Asia had heard of Wuhan before 2020, but as ground zero of the Covid-19 pandemic, the city quickly became global front-page news. Five years after the coronavirus outbreak, Wuhan is getting up off the mat. In addition to being the country’s high-speed rail network hub (connecting 80% of China’s major cities within four hours), the city also ranks #19 in our Airport Connectivity subcategory. Happily, Wuhan is also investing locally, yielding astonishing tech innovations like the 2022 launch of Baidu’s Apollo Go, the world’s first commercial self-driving taxi service, as part of a larger push to become a hub for smart cities and sustainable transport. Wuhan’s urban development is equally ambitious, with plans to invest heavily in emerging industries like advanced manufacturing, healthcare and renewable energy, aiming to generate more than US$14 billion by 2027. At the heart of this technological and industrial boom is the Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone, also known as the Optics Valley of China. As a national-level development zone, it’s rapidly attracting global investment, talent and high-tech firms. Expect its #19 ranking for Fortune 500 companies to improve as the pall of the pandemic lifts and major events return to the #7-ranked Convention Center, improving the city’s overall #24 Prosperity ranking.