Foreign concessions in Hankou

Several European nations and Japan held foreign concessions in the city of Hankou (now part of Wuhan) in China from 1861 to 1943. Foreign concessions were present in other Chinese cities, particularly Shanghai and Tianjin, but Hankou was the only city in China's interior to have concession areas. The five concession areas belonged to Britain, Germany, France, Russia and Japan, which were all lined up together along the Hankou Bund.

Britain was the first to establish a concession in 1861, with the other four nations establishing them in the 1890s. Their establishment was driven by a combination of economic interests and prestige. The Hankou concessions were smaller than their coastal counterparts. At most, 1,500 foreigners resided in the concession zones. After World War I and the Russian Revolution, the German and Russian concessions were lost. In 1927, the British conceded leaving only the French and Japanese. Following the Japanese occupation of Wuhan in 1938, the French concession became isolated. In 1943, both the Japanese and French concessions were dissolved. Much of the architecture of the concessions remains in modern-day Hankou.