Besides bridges and waterways in water towns, Wu Guanzhong also enjoyed painting bustling modern cities. To portray the brightness of city nightscape with ink, he explored various routes, yet remained unsatisfied with its subdued effect.

After numerous attempts, he created City night at the age of 78. He also wrote an article to share his exploration and what he had learned, "I started by focusing on the interlace of bold horizontal and vertical brushstrokes, and the illusion created by staggering buildings. They stand tall and compete with each other to reach for the sky as far as the eye can see. What the picture shows is a whole architectural complex but not any specific buildings. Neither is the city supposed to be Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York, Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen. The big and small dripping dots can be windows and doors, or otherwise. All of them complement the building silhouettes and chime in with the line and surfaces. The intense red, yellow and green dots and planes dance over the blacks, whites and greys. They are the eyes of the night, the burst of colourful merriments, and the most dominant notes in the painting."