The 380-room Sheraton is a benchmark of luxury in Chángshā, with contemporary, fully equipped rooms and a glass-window enclosed swimming pool, among other tempting amenities and restaurants.
PRICE RANGES
SLEEPING
The following price ranges refer to a double room with bathroom.
Category Cost
$ less than ¥150
$$ ¥150–400
$$$ more than ¥400
EATING
The following price ranges refer to a meal for one.
Category Cost
$ less than ¥40
$$ ¥40–80
$$$ more than ¥80
5Eating
The lanes off the major shopping street, Huangxing Lu, and on and around the nightlife hub Taiping Jie, are good for street food. Follow your nose to the stalls selling chòu dòufu (臭豆腐; stinky tofu), a popular local delicacy.
Breakfast here is all about mǐfěn (米粉; rice noodles). Almost anywhere open early will serve them, usually in a number of varieties; beef (牛肉粉; niúròu fěn) is popular.
oSōnghuājiāng JiǎoziguǎnDUMPLINGS$
(松花江饺子馆 MAP GOOGLE MAP ; 102 Wuyi Dadao; 五一大道102号 dumplings from ¥6, mains ¥30-60; h10.30am-10pm)
Not a romantic choice, this bustling eatery specialises in the mellow cuisine of northern China. Dumplings (饺子; jiǎozi) are the speciality and come in many varieties, including pork and chives (¥6), lamb and onion (¥8) and just pork (¥6). There are also tasty lamb kebabs (¥6) and fine beef-filled fried bread (¥8). There's a picture menu.
The dumplings are priced by the liǎng (两; 50g), which gets you six dumplings. You must order at least two liǎng (èr liǎng) of each type of dumpling and one portion is generally sufficient.
oHuǒgōngdiànHUNAN$$
(火宫殿 MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %0731 8581 4228; 127 Pozi Jie; 坡子街127号 dishes ¥5-88; h6am-2am)
There’s a great buzz at this landmark eatery, established in 1747 and set in and around a small templelike courtyard. Even Mao has eaten here, in 1958, and he praised the homemade choù dòufu (臭豆腐; stinky tofu; ¥18). The xiǎo chī (小吃; snacks) menu is for those eating in the courtyard and off to one side. The xiāngcài (湘菜; Húnán cuisine) menu is for those seated in the back room.
8Information
Bank of ChinaBANK
(中国银行; Zhōngguó Yínháng MAP GOOGLE MAP ; 43 Wuyi Dadao; 五一大道43号 )
By the Civil Aviation Hotel. Has an exchange.
China PostPOST
(中国邮政; Zhōngguó Yóuzhèng GOOGLE MAP ; 480 Chezhan Lu; 车站路480号 h9am-5pm)
By the train station.
HSBC ATMBANK
(汇丰银行; Huìfēng Yínháng GOOGLE MAP ; 159 Shaoshan Lu; 韶山路159号 )
Twenty-four-hour ATM in Dolton Hotel lobby.
Provincial People’s HospitalHOSPITAL
(省人民医院; Shěng Rénmín Yīyuàn MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %0731 8227 8120; 61 Jiefang Xilu; 解放西路61号 )
One of the largest hospitals in the city, centrally located on Jiefang Xilu.
Public Security BureauPOLICE
(PSB; 公安局; Gōng’ānjú %0731 8887 8741; 2 Fenglin Yilu; 枫林一路2号 )
For visa extensions, go to this PSB about 2km west of the river. Yingwanzhen metro station is closest.
8Getting There & Away
Air
Chángshā’s Huánghuā International Airport (黄花国际机场; Huánghuā Guójì Jīchǎng %0731 8479 8777) has flights to pretty much every city in China plus services to Bangkok, Seoul, Phnom Penh and Singapore. Also has daily local flights to Huáihuà (¥820, one hour) and Zhāngjiājiè (¥500, one hour).
Book tickets through www.elong.net or www.ctrip.com, or at the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC; 中国民航售票处; Zhōngguó Mínháng Shòupiàochù MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %0731 8411 2222; 49 Wuyi Dadao; 五一大道49号 h8.30am-5.30pm) near the train station.
Bus
Chángshā has multiple bus stations, but most travellers use South Bus Station (汽车南站; qìchē nánzhàn ) (take bus 107 or 7 from Chángshā Train Station, or bus 16 from Chángshā South Train Station) or West Bus Station (汽车西站; qìchē xīzhàn ) (at Wangchengpo metro station). Long-distance buses also leave from both train stations.
Buy bus tickets at the bus stations, or at the bus ticket office (长途汽车售票处; Chángtú Qìchē Shòupiào Chù MAP GOOGLE MAP ; north side, train station square) in the train station square.
Services from South Bus Station):
AFènghuáng ¥134, five hours, four daily (9am to 3.40pm)
AGuìlín ¥144, seven hours, 3.40pm
AHéng Shān ¥46, three hours, hourly 8am to 5.20pm
AHéngyáng ¥60, two hours, hourly 7.50am to 6.20pm
AHuáihuà ¥105, six hours, hourly 10.30am to 3pm
ANánchāng ¥118, five hours, one daily (8.30am)
AShànghǎi sleeper ¥326, 16 hours, 5pm
ASháoshān ¥32, 1½ hours, half-hourly 8am to 5.30pm
Services from West Bus Station:
AFènghuáng ¥145, five hours, eight daily (9am to 5.20pm)
AJíshǒu ¥136, 4½ hours, regular from 8.30am to 7.10pm
AZhāngjiājiè ¥119, four hours, hourly 8.20am to 6.30pm
Train
Both train stations are connected to the metro. Bullet trains leave from Chángshā South Train Station (长沙南站; Chángshā Nánzhàn Huahou Lu; 花候路 ).
Services from Chángshā Train Station (长沙火车站; Chángshā huǒchēzhàn GOOGLE MAP ):
ABěijīng Z-class hard seat/sleeper ¥190/334, 14 hours, 11 daily
AGuǎngzhōu T/K-class hard seat/sleeper ¥99/193, seven to eight hours, 30 daily
AHuáihuà T/K-class hard seat/sleeper ¥72/146, seven hours, 15 daily
AJíshǒu T/K-class hard seat/sleeper ¥75/142, seven to nine hours, five daily
AShànghǎi D-class bullet ¥258, seven hours, 10.35am
AShànghǎi K-class hard seat/sleeper ¥149/273, 15 hours, three daily (12.37am, 6.36pm, 9.53pm)
AWǔhàn K-class hard seat ¥54, four hours, 10 daily
AZhāngjiājiè T/K-class hard seat/sleeper ¥55/109, 5½ hours, six daily
Services from Chángshā South Train Station:
ABěijīng West G-class bullet ¥649, 5¾ to seven hours, 16 daily (7.30am to 4pm)
AGuǎngzhōu South G-class bullet ¥314, 2½ hours, every 10 minutes (7am to 9.15pm)
AHuáihuà South G-class bullet ¥153, 100 minutes, regular
AShànghǎi Hóngqiáo G-class bullet ¥478, five hours, regular
ASháoshān South G-class bullet 2nd/1st class ¥31/51, 25 minutes, regular from 8.10am to 6.45pm
AShēnzhèn North G-class bullet ¥389, 2½ hours, half-hourly 7am to 8.30pm
AWǔhàn G-class bullet ¥165, 1½ hours, half-hourly 7.30am to 9.58pm
AXī'ān G-class bullet ¥590, six hours, nine daily (8.20am to 4.32pm)
8Getting Around
To/From the Airport
Huánghuā International Airport is 26km from the city centre. Airport shuttle buses (机场巴士; jīchǎng bāshì MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Wuyi Dadao; 五一大道 ¥15.50) depart from the CAAC office on Wuyi Dadao near the train station, every 15 minutes between 5.20am and 10.30pm, and take 40 minutes.
Local bus 114 (¥3, 70 minutes, 6.30am to 6.30pm) also links the train station to the airport.
A taxi from the city centre is about ¥90.
The eagerly anticipated Maglev (磁浮; cífú; magnetic levitation train) was due to start operating by the time you read this, whooshing passengers from the airport to South Train Station in a mere 10 minutes.
Bus
Local buses cost ¥1 or ¥2 per trip. Carry exact change.
Metro
Handy Line 2 of Chángshā's metro (地铁; dìtiě; tickets ¥2 to ¥5) goes from Chángshā South Train Station to Chángshā Train Station then along Wuyi Dadao to Tangerine Isle and on to West
Bus Station. Metro trains run from 6.30am to 10.30pm. Line 1 is under construction and may be operating by the time you read this.
Taxi
Taxi flag fall is ¥8; ¥10 after 10pm.
Sháoshān 韶山
%0732 / Pop 120,000
More than three million people make the pilgrimage each year to Mao Zedong’s rural hometown, a pretty hamlet frozen in time 130km southwest of Chángshā. The swarms of young and old drop something to the tune of ¥1.8 billion annually in Sháoshān (韶山). Mao statues alone are such big business that each must pass inspection by no fewer than five experts checking for features, expression, hairstyle, costume and posture. The 6m-high bronze statue of Mao erected in 1993 in Mao Zedong Sq is considered a model example.
Sháoshān can be easily done as a day trip, especially with the advent of the high-speed train from Chángshā, so there’s little reason to spend the night here.
1Sights
Sháoshān is in two parts: the modern town with the train and bus stations, and the original village about 5km away, where all the sights cluster. Only a handful of the popular sights have a genuine connection to Mao.
The minibus from town will drop you on the main road by the village, a few hundred metres from Mao's former residence; cross the small river to the left of the road. You'll then see Mao Zedong Square (with its Mao statue) to your right, but turn left to reach Mao's former residence.
Relic Hall of Mao ZedongMUSEUM
(毛泽东遗物馆; Máo Zédōng Yíwùguǎn h9am-4.30pm)F
This museum includes everyday artefacts used by the Great Helmsman, clothing he wore and photos from his life; it benefits from good English captions.
Sháo PeakMOUNTAIN
(韶峰; Sháo Fēng incl cable car ¥80; h8.30am-5pm)
This cone-shaped mountain is visible from the village. On the lower slopes is the forest of stelae, stone tablets engraved with Mao’s poems. You can hike to the summit, where there's a lookout pavilion; this takes about an hour.
Dripping Water CavePARK
(滴水洞; Dī Shuǐ Dòng ¥50; h8am-5.30pm)
Mao secluded himself here for 11 days in June 1966, 3km outside of Sháoshān village, to contemplate the start of the Cultural Revolution. His retreat was actually a low-slung, cement and steel bunker (not the cave, which was a few kilometres away). Members of the Mao clan are entombed nearby.
Mao Zedong Memorial MuseumMUSEUM
(毛泽东同志纪念馆; Máo Zédōng Tóngzhì Jìniànguǎn h9am-4.30pm)F
Exiting Mao's home, turn left and walk straight on to Mao Zedong Sq where, on your left, you'll see the entrance to this museum, which celebrates Mao's life through paintings and old photos, assisted with decent English captions.
Former Residence of Mao ZedongHISTORIC SITE
(毛泽东故居; Máo Zédōng Gùjū h8.30am-5pm)F
Surrounded by lotus ponds and rice paddies, this modest mud-brick house is like millions of other country homes except that Mao was born here in 1893. By most accounts, his childhood was relatively normal, though he tried to run away at age 10. He returned briefly in 1921 as a young revolutionary and firebrand. On view are some original furnishings, photos of Mao’s parents and a small barn. No photography allowed inside.
MAO: THE GREAT HELMSMAN
Mao Zedong was born in the village of Sháoshān in 1893, the son of ‘wealthy’ peasants. Mao worked beside his father on the 8-hectare family farm from age six and was married by 14.
At 16, he convinced his father to let him attend middle school in Chángshā. In the city, Mao discovered Sun Yatsen’s revolutionary secret society. When the Qing dynasty collapsed that year, Mao joined the republican army but soon quit, thinking the revolution was over.
At the Húnán County No 1 Teachers’ Training School, Mao began following the Soviet socialism movement. He put an ad in a Chángshā newspaper ‘inviting young men interested in patriotic work to contact me’, and among those who responded were Liu Shaoqi, who would become president of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and Xiao Chen, who would be a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Mao graduated in 1918 and went to work as an assistant librarian at Peking University, where he befriended more future major CCP figures. By the time he returned to teach in Chángshā, Mao was active in communist politics. Unlike orthodox Marxists, Mao saw peasants as the lifeblood of the revolution. The CCP was formed in today's Xīntiāndì area in Shànghǎi in 1921, and soon included unions of peasants, workers and students.
In April 1927, following Kuomintang leader Chiang Kaishek’s attack on communists, Mao was tasked with organising what became the ‘Autumn Harvest Uprising’. Mao’s army scaled Jǐnggāng Shān, on the border with Jiāngxī province, to embark on a guerrilla war. The campaign continued until the Long March in October 1934, a 9600km retreat that ended up in Yán'ān in north Shǎnxī province. Mao emerged from the Long March as the CCP leader.
Mao forged a fragile alliance with the Kuomintang to expel the Japanese, and from 1936 to 1948 the two sides engaged in betrayals, conducting a civil war simultaneously with WWII. Mao’s troops eventually won, and the PRC was established on 1 October 1949.
As chairman of the PRC, Mao embarked on radical campaigns to repair his war-ravaged country. In the mid-1950s he began to implement peasant-based and decentralised socialist developments. The outcome was the ill-fated Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76).
China saw significant gains in education, women’s rights and average life expectancy under Mao’s rule; however, by most estimates, between 40 and 70 million people died during that era of change, mainly from famine. Five years after Mao’s death, Deng Xiaoping famously announced Mao had been 70% right and 30% wrong in an effort, some say, to tear down Mao’s cult of personality. Yet today, Mao remains revered as the man who united the country, and he is still commonly referred to as the ‘Great Leader’, ‘Great Teacher’ and ‘supremely beloved Chairman’. His image hangs everywhere – in public places, schools, taxis, restaurants and living rooms – but exactly what he symbolises now is the question that China grapples with today.
4Sleeping
With the advent of the high-speed train connection from Chángshā, there is even less need to overnight here. Nondescript hotels with rooms for around ¥140 after discounts are close to the bus station in the new town. In the village itself, touts are happy to lead you to a nóngjiālè (农家乐), a local family’s guesthouse.
Máo Jiā FàndiànHOTEL$
(毛家饭店 %0731 5568 5132; r from ¥160)
Has huge rooms facing onto an overgrown courtyard.
Sháoshān BīnguǎnHOTEL$$
(韶山宾馆 %0731 5568 5262; 16 Guyuan Lu; 故园路16号 s & d ¥468, plus 10% service charge; ai)
The rooms here are clean and bright – four-star standard issue. You’re paying for location and the fact that Mao and various CCP bigwigs slept in the building next door in June 1959.
5Eating
Restaurants are all over the village, each and every one serving Mao’s favourite dish, Máo jiā hóngshāoròu (毛家红烧肉; Mao family red-braised pork) from around ¥45 and up. It's almost mandatory to partake.
oMáo Jiā FàndiànHUNAN$$
(毛家饭店 Sháoshān Village; 韶山 mains ¥25-65; h6am-9pm)
The best-known restaurant in the village was opened in 1987 by business-savvy octogenarian Madam Tang, who used to live in the house opposite Mao, but who now owns a restaurant empire with more than 300 outlets worldwide. Máo Zédōng hóngshāoròu (毛泽东红烧肉; Mao's favourite braised pork belly; ¥58) takes pride of place as first dish on the menu.
8Getting There & Away
Bus
Buses (¥32, 1½ hours) from Chángshā South Bus Station terminate at Sháoshān Bus Station (韶山汽车站; Sháoshān Qìchēzhàn Yingbin Lu; 迎宾路 ), where you need to transfer to a minibus (¥2.50 one way, ¥10 hop-on, hop-off) for the village, 5km away. M
inibuses also shuttle between the sights, but it's nicer just to walk around once you're there.
The last bus back to Chángshā from the bus station leaves at 5.30pm.
Train
The new fast-train service (2nd/1st class ¥31/51) zips regularly to Sháoshān South Train Station (韶山南站; Sháoshān Nánzhàn) from Chángshā South Train Station between 8.10am and 6.45pm, making it the fastest way to reach Sháoshān. The journey takes a mere 25 minutes.The last train back to Chángshā departs at 9.26pm.
8Getting Around
A tourist minibus (中巴; ¥10) lets you hop on and off at the key sights with one ticket from 7am to 6pm. Pick it up in front of sights and the Sháoshān Bīnguǎn. Expect to pay ¥100 for a taxi to take you around. Local minibuses (¥2.50) also take you to the sights from Sháoshān South Train Station; a taxi will cost you around ¥20.
Héng Shān 衡山
%0734
About 130km south of Chángshā rises the southernmost of China’s five sacred Taoist mountains – Héng Shān (衡山) – to which emperors came to make sacrifices to heaven and earth. The ancients called it Nányuè (南岳; Southern Mountain), a name it now shares with the town at its base. The imperial visits left a legacy of Taoist temples and ancient inscriptions scattered amid gushing waterfalls, dense pine forests and terraced fields cut from lush canyons. Bring extra layers, as the weather can turn quickly and the summit is often cold and wet.
Lonely Planet China Page 96