I. Overview of creativity and innovation of metro culture

Since its founding, Wuhan Metro Group has highlighted the development of metro culture and has synchronized the development and practice of culture during the process of the design, construction and operation of rail transit. The main work we carry out consists of artistic design of metro stations (artistic metro), literary culture in metro stations (literary metro) and cultural activities in metro stations (cultural metro), etc.

II. Implementation of cultural creativity of metro

(1) Artistic metro

A great number of artistic ideas are integrated into the design and construction of Wuhan metro, and from the commencement of construction, the planning and research of public art of lines and network has been started and the preliminary research result of art of lines and network with the theme of "Memory · Dream" has been formed. Each line of Wuhan Metro has its own symbolic color, i.e. the color of Line 1 is blue, Line 2 is plum, Line 3 is golden (golden color of Guiyuan Temple), Line 4 is olive drab and Line 6 is parrot green, creating a colorful Wuhan with splendid civilization. Since the completion of Phase I Project of Line 2, we have focused on the design of characteristic stations during the design process of rail transit routes and even performed the artistic design for the whole route, and by combining time, space and cultural tradition systematically, we apply the design of characteristic stations, sculptures, murals and artistic show windows, etc. to display the tales and cultural history of Wuhan and create an all-embracing space of metro culture. The design themes of Lines 2, 3, 4 and 6 refer to "Be the Pulse of Happy Wuhan City", "Golden Dream", "Green Commuting and Cultural Metro" and "Classic Rhyme in Modern Style and Bright Metro" respectively; moreover, for the ancillary facilities of stations in Lines 3 and 6, the cultural design is also performed synchronously. As for the rail transit system, Line 2 is designed with "Return of Yellow Cranes" in Hankou Railway Station and "Chu Style and Ancient Rhyme" in Hongshan Square Station, Line 3, Line 3 is designed with "Brilliant Milky Way" in Wuhan Business District and "Great Plan of All Business" in Hongtu Avenue Station, Line 4 is designed with "Red Shouyi" in Shouyi Road Station, "Review of Wuchang City" in Fuxing Road Station and "The Revered Mr. Zhang Zhidong as Hubei Governor" in Wulidun Station, and Line 6 is designed with "Hanzheng Impression" in Hanzheng Street Station and "Recall of Liudu" in Liuduqiao Station, etc. In the current stage, there have been 36 famous artistic stations with unique design characteristics in Wuhan Metro.

It is worth mentioning that the professional units, e.g. Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, Hubei Museum of Art, China Central Academy of Fine Arts and Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, and over 100 artists from Belarus and Germany, etc. participate in the conceptual scheme design of Line 6 which has been opened at the end of 2016, and after one and a half years, the theme of "Classic Rhyme in Modern Style and Bright Metro" is finalized, and combined with the characteristics reflected by different urban sections, the combined method of modern materials and modularity is adopted to create an "Underground Urban Palace of Art" characterized by uniform design elements, definite theme and orientation and diversified styles of art. Each artistic design is performed on the basis of each feature around each station, e.g. from "Twinkling Lights" of Changqinghuayuan Station to "A Flourishing Scene of Prosperity" of Garden Expo North Station, from "Various Exhibitions" of South International Expo Center Station to "Fantastic Ocean" of North International Expo Center Station, and further to "New Houses in Old Villages" of Shiqiao Station and "Music Lovers" of Qintai Station, realizing one scene for each station. In Wusheng Road Station, Hanzheng Street Station, Liuduqiao Station, Jianghan Road Station and Dazhi Station along the line of Zhongshan Avenue, the amazing art walls depict the memory of old Wuhan have been unveiled —— arcades, memorial archways, carved eaves and bamboo beds, reproducing the prosperity of old Hankou; the Overbridge in Liuduqiao, Jianghan Customs, Minzhong Fairyland, Water Tower and Xuangong Hotel carry the memory of Wuhan people; in Hanzheng Street, the mural with a length of over 70m moves "the First Street under Heaven", which was nationally renowned in China, to the underground space, depicting an Along the River During the Qingming Festival of Wuhan. After Line 6 is opened, many citizens are in a hurry to see these artistic stations, in which a great number of people of all ages and both sexes who are enchanted by these artistic walls do not want to leave and each of which is the optimal selfie-taking background.

 Wuhan Business District in Line 3 is the largest metro station in Wuhan now, which is an important supporting traffic facility of Wuhan rail transit in the core zone of CBD and is also the first project to be implemented of the underground space in the core zone of CBD. The station is designed with the theme of "Brilliant Milky Way" for comprehensive artistic design, and based on the improvement of function design, the artistic design has been made for artistic walls, ceilings, wall surfaces, floors, column surfaces and triangular machine rooms, etc. so as to achieve the optimum aesthetic effect. The ceiling of station hall is made of colorful aluminium sheets, breaking through the traditional single color, and the colorful starlit sky drawing made of enamelled steel sheets is used for artistic effect. The dome of the central area in the station is also the first one in China, and the structural steel glass of the dome is made of 7 kinds of blue glass from top to bottom and from light color to dark color, creating a fantastic effect like the blooming of a lotus; under the dome, the firework LED light decorations are suspended like the blooming of fireworks; the LED electronic screens are adopted on side walls, and the change of screen backgrounds can make the starlit sky mysterious; the express lift in the middle part of the central area is covered with the hollowed-out steel structure of petal shape and the floor is also designed with petal printing, creating a tranquil and mysterious space. The artistic wall of "The Milky Way" is made of brand optical fiber produced by the science and technology industry of Wuhan, with an aim to display the universe and the Milky Way, symbolizing that Wuhan uses the high technology to make the Golden Dream come true and representing the yearning for future science and technology and the exploration of the vast universe.

(2) Literary metro

In accordance with the theory of constructing "the City of Reading" of Wuhan Municipal Committee of the CPC and Wuhan Municipal Government, Wuhan Metro proposes the concept of "Literary Metro", and with the increasing extension of lines and network, the meaning of "Literary Metro" of Wuhan is gradually enriched and a series of cultural items, including metro self-service library, metro newspaper, metro reading day, metro reading space and poetry show of urban public space, etc., are launched carefully.

 On December 28, 2012, the Phase I Project of Line 2 of Wuhan Metro was open to traffic, and on the same day, the self-service libraries in 21 stations along the line started operating, which are the first batch of "metro self-service libraries" in China. In the current stage, the self-service libraries have been placed in three towns of Wuhan. Line 2, Phase I of Line 3, Line 4 and Line 6 of the rail transit system are provided with 97 self-service libraries including 237,500 volumes, and 27,979 library cards have been handled in total. Taking the amount of borrowed books of 2016 as an example, Guanggu Square Station, Zhongshan Park and Zhongjiacun Station are the top three stations in these 97 metro self-service libraries, and the three most popular types of books are literature, history & geography and economy.

 The exclusive metro newspaper —— Wuhan Morning News · Metro has been issued for the whole metro line between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. from March, 2012. From 2012 to now, the circulation of metro newspaper has been up to 228 million.

 On the World Book Day of 2013, Wuhan Metro distributed books for free to passengers in metro stations and carried out the theme activities, e.g. "Recommend Books to Office Workers by Metro", forming the basic framework of "Metro Reading Day" activities; the second Reading Day was held in April, 2014, and the metro stations with a large flow of passengers were equipped with "book receiving points" to collect a variety of books donated by passengers for exchange of reading; for the third Reading Day in April, 2015, the "Yao Jie Volunteer Group of Metro Service Star" promoted metro self-service libraries to the public vigorously and at the same time, the well-known local poets were invited to carry out the folk poetry reading activities in the "Corner of Metro Culture"; the fourth Metro Reading Day opened in Wuhan Metro in April, 2016, and the first public reading space in the metro station hall, i.e. "Wuhan Metro Reading Corner" , was formally unveiled in Wangjiawan Station, which was well received by many citizens.

 From September, 2012 to now, Wuhan Metro has cooperated with Hubei Provincial Writer's Association and the Publicity Department of Wuhan Municipal Committee of the CPC, etc. to hold 5 "Poetry Shows of Urban Public Space" in five successive years, fully utilize this mobile platform for the public, i.e. metro, to display excellent poems to the public and ignite the romantic atmosphere of this city, gaining the reputation of "poetic city" for Wuhan. There were a total of more than 1,728 metro positions, including light boxes, stair advertising boards and LED screens, etc., in these five activities, exhibiting 808 Chinese and foreign poems at home and abroad in total, and each poetry show lasted for near 6 months, which also created a precedent in China.

 "Literary Metro" is a new path explored by Wuhan Metro based on continuous demonstration, bold experiments and team spirit during the process of construction, operation and management for purposes of realizing pragmatism and innovation, serving and benefiting people and helping the construction of National Central City. Wuhan Metro actively carries out various kinds of reading activities all the time and strongly advocates the civilized fashion of "Loving Reading and Good at Reading". Nowadays, "Literary Metro" has gradually become a unique mark of the rail transit in Wuhan and a beautiful scenic route of culture in China.

(3) Cultural metro

The fast-paced metro links up the "channels and collaterals" of Wuhan, while the humanistic environment of this city also has a significant impact on the forming of metro culture. Wuhan Metro always pay more attention to the building of culture; when the station functions are enriched and the requirements of passengers are satisfied, the passengers can enjoy fine arts and the level and quality of city culture can be improved.

As an important position of culture, the cultural corner of Wuhan Metro, which was unveiled in Hongshan Square Station on July 23, 2014, has received many supports from all sectors of the society and has held more than 100 cultural activities so far together with Wuhan Morning News, the Wuhan Magazine, the Office of Emergency Management of Hubei Province and Chutian Traffic Radio, etc.  Two cultural activities of various types are regularly carried out in the "Corner of Metro Culture" per month, so that it gradually becomes an unceasing cultural stage, an open space for exchange of the public and a happy stage for passengers by metro of Wuhan, so that the metro culture of Wuhan is promoted to the whole Wuhan from this point.

The cherry blossom of Wuhan is well-known in China. In March, 2015, Wuhan Metro designed the metro trains with the beautiful scene of blooming of cherry blossom in a bold and creative way, i.e. the type of overall packaging in trains is adopted to put passengers in the sea of pink flowers, which can contrast pleasantly with the olive drab of Line 4, creating a romantic and fantastic atmosphere. The "Special Cherry Blossom Metro Train" was unveiled on March 8 and started operating on March 14, and then a vigorous mass campaign for "watching cherry blossom by metro" was unfolded in Wuhan, having a huge social response in Wuhan and even in China. On the day when the special train was unveiled, it ranked first in the Sina Weibo Search and ranked in the list of national hot topics, and it was a national hot spot on March 8. The "Special Cherry Blossom Metro Train" was reported by more than 100 media, including People's Daily, people.cn, xinhuanet.com, Sina, Sohu, Youku and iQIYI, etc., and the pictures and hot words of the Cherry Blossom Metro Train could be seen everywhere in the social network, the number of readers was over 100 million and the highest amount of reading was 14.97 million for a single piece of news.

At the end of the same year, Line 3 was open to traffic, and in memory of connection of three towns via the rail transit system, Wuhan Metro launched another creative train, i.e. "Golden Dream". The internal decorations of "Golden Dream" are completely made of hand-painted ACG style, and the carriage bottom of carriage is used as the checkerboard and the number of dice is changed to the polite language, so such friendly and interactive type of manifestation spreads the idea of civilized commuting effectively; in terms of hue, the golden color corresponding to "golden color of Guiyuan Temple" is selected and the design element, i.e. ginkgo, represents longevity, wisdom and harvest; Yellow Crane, as one typical element of Wuhan, is used as the mascot of the train, which is painted from the head to the end of the train along both sides, indicating that Wuhan Metro will drive to a promising future via two wings of this lucky bird.

Subsequently, Wuhan Metro cooperated with Wuhan Association for Science and Technology to launch the "special science and technology train", of which the top and bottom are designed with decorative painting of outer space and the Milky Way, so passengers seem to be in the universe when they enter this train, while they also can study the knowledge of aeronautics and astronautics, e.g. FY meteorological satellites, Beidou satellites and Chang'e satellites, and this innovative type of popularization of science is highly praised by passengers.

III. Working measures of the next step

(1) Combined with the construction of new lines, the artistic design of rail transit lines and stations will continue to be promoted so as to establish a lightspot metro station.

(2) Based on the operation of rail transit and the requirements of passengers, the brand building of "Literary Metro" will continue to be advanced, the existing actives of metro reading day, poetry show of public space, corner of metro culture and metro reading corner, etc. will be solidified, and the activities of metro culture will be carried out in good time.

(3) The metro culture will be systematically combined with the urban culture and the life of common people; the quality of metro newspaper and magazines will be improved, i.e. the "character art" will be used to enhance the level of metro culture, with the aim to place the underground space in the artistic atmosphere and enrich the inner world of people by metro.