Between 1956 and 1966, Chairman Mao swam in the Yangtze River eighteen times, stepping ashore at the concrete steps of the Wuchang Shipyard on fourteen of those occasions. In September 1958, shipyard workers crowded beneath a towering steel crane to cheer as he emerged from the water. Decades later, in 2003, those same shipbuilders poured seven tons of metal to cast a 5.18-meter-tall monument, immortalizing that moment of triumph to commemorate the 110th anniversary of Chairman Mao‘s birth.

This statue stands at the heart of Wuchang Bay 1956 Park, elevated on a plaza created by the Wuhan Urban Construction Group during the park’s renovation, which opened in 2025. Engineers preserved the original orientation of the figure, surrounding it with concentric circular steps and a massive red stone poetry wall. On the northern side, the wall bears poems carved in original calligraphy, including Water Melody Singer – Swimming.

Visitors now walk where shipbuilders once labored. They can see the rough, rust-speckled steel of the preserved 1958 tower crane and look down at the weathered concrete steps leading into the river. At night, projection systems cast glowing calligraphic characters onto the red stone, illuminating the words above the dark, rushing water.

The statue, with its wind-swept coat and waving hand, remains a permanent landmark against the horizon, framed by the distant spans of the Wuhan and Yingwuzhou Yangtze River Bridges.