Welcome to Changsha!
Changsha (长沙 Chángshā) is the capital of Hunan Province in South-central China and has a history of over 3,000 years. Mao Zedong lived and worked as a teacher in Changsha, and it was the site of his conversion to communism. A huge sculpture of Mao's head on Orange Island reminds everyone of his connection to the city.
Today, Changsha has an urban population of about 7 million people. A modern city center with skyscrapers, shopping malls and walking streets invites for relaxed strolls. There are also plenty of opportunities to try the famous Hunanese cuisine and street food stores offer small bites (小吃 xiaochi) such as stinky tofu, mini lobsters, butter pancakes, and many more!
Changsha (simplified Chinese: 长沙, traditional Chinese: 長沙, pinyin: Chángshā) is the capital and the largest city of Hunan Province in the south-central part of the People's Republic of China, located in the lower reaches of Xiang River in northeastern Hunan. Changsha is also called Xingcheng (星城, 'Star City') and was once named Linxiang (临湘）, Tanzhou (潭州), Qingyang (青阳) in ancient times. It is also known as Shanshuizhoucheng (山水洲城), with the Xiang River flowing through it, containing Mount Yuelu and Orange Isle. Changsha, with a total population of up to 10 million as of 2020, is the core city of Chang-Zhu-Tan City Cluster and a supercity in China, one of the core cities in Central China, a National Comprehensive Transportation Hub, and one of the first National Famous Historical and Cultural Cities in China. Changshanese, a kind of Xiang Chinese, is spoken in the downtown, while Ningxiangnese and Liuyangnese are also spoken in the counties and cities under its jurisdiction. Changsha has a history of more than 2,400 years of urban construction, and the name "Changsha" first appeared in the Yi Zhou Shu (逸周书）written in the pre-Qin era. In the Qin Dynasty, the Changsha Commandery was set up, and in the Western Han Dynasty, the Changsha Kingdom was established. The Tongguan Kiln in Changsha during the Tang Dynasty produced the world's earliest underglaze porcelain, which was exported to Western Asia, Africa and Europe. In the Period of Five Dynasties, Changsha was the capital of Southern Chu. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the Yuelu Academy became one of the four major private academies in ancient China, with the famous couplet "惟楚有才，于斯为盛" (The only Chu has talent, and it is flourishing in this area) coming down to modern times. In the late Qing Dynasty, Changsha was one of the four major trade cities for rice and tea in China. In 1904, it was opened to foreign trade, and gradually became a revolutionary city. In Changsha, Tan Sitong established the School of Current Affairs, and Huang Xing founded the China Arise Society with the slogan "Expel the Tatar barbarians and revive Zhonghua" (驱除鞑虏，复兴中华), and Mao Zedong also carried out his early political movements here. During the Republican Era, Changsha became one of the major home fronts in the Second Sino-Japanese War, but the subsequent Wenxi Fire in 1938 and the three Battles of Changsha from 1939 to 1942 (1939, 1941 and 1941–42) hit Changsha's economy and urban construction hard. Changsha is now one of the core cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Belt and Road Initiative, and also a pioneering area for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation. As of 2020, Changsha Huanghua International Airport, a regional hub for China Southern Airlines, was one of the 40 busiest airports in the world. More than 164 Global 500 companies have established branches in Changsha. Known as the "Construction machinery capital of the world", Changsha has an industrial chain with construction machinery and new materials as the main industries, complemented by automobiles, electronic information, household appliances, and biomedicine. Since the 1990s, Changsha has begun to accelerate economic development, and then achieved the highest growing rate in China's major cities during 2000s. the Xiangjiang New Area, which is the first state-level new area in Central China, was established in 2015. Changsha also has a prominent media and publishing industry and has been named the first "UNESCO City of Media Arts" in China. Changsha is home to Hunan Broadcasting System (HBS), the most influential provincial TV stations in China. There are four Double First Class Universities in Changsha: Hunan University, National University of Defense Technology, Central South University, and Hunan Normal University, which makes Changsha the seat of several world-class universities. Changsha is the birthplace of super hybrid rice, the Tianhe-1 supercomputer, and China's first laser 3D printer, as well as China's first domestic medium-low speed maglev line. Human Development Index of Changsha reached 0.817 (very high) in 2019, which is roughly comparable to a moderately developed country.