Xiangtan is in Hunan, in Central China.
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Hunan · City Guide
Xiangtan, Shaoshan's Home County.
Overview
Why Go
Mao Zedong, 1893 to 1976, was born in a farmhouse at Shaoshan in this prefecture. The house, a memorial museum and a bronze statue on a square draw several million domestic visitors a year. Entry is free and booked in advance.
Qi Baishi, 1864 to 1957, was apprenticed as a carpenter in a Xiangtan village before he took up the brush. He became a particularly widely reproduced Chinese ink painter of the last century, and shrimp are what he is known for.
Peng Dehuai, Chen Geng and Huang Gonglüe were all born within a short distance of each other here, and the Xiang regional force of the 1850s recruited heavily from these villages. Several of the houses are open.
Xianglian, the lotus seed of the Xiang valley, is the variety Chinese cooks mean when a recipe says lotus seed. The ponds around Xiangtan supply it and the flowering in June and July is worth the detour on its own.
Xiangtan's shadow theatre uses figures cut from oiled paper rather than the hide used further north, which gives thinner lines and brighter colour. Troupes still play at temple fairs and village funerals.
See
The farmhouse where Mao Zedong was born, a memorial museum, a hall of personal effects and the square with the bronze statue, spread over a valley with shuttle buses between them. Book ahead and bring the passport.
A museum in the city holding work, seals and carving tools, with the painter's village house preserved separately out in Xiangtan County. The seals matter as much as the paintings; he cut his own. An hour.
A brick farmhouse at Wushi with a museum next to it, for one of the ten marshals of 1955, 1898 to 1974. Quieter than Shaoshan and about 40 minutes further out. Signage in Chinese.
A walled Qing academy at Xiangxiang with a moat and bridge, built in the 1890s to teach western subjects alongside the classics. The classrooms and dormitories are laid out as they were. Forty minutes.
A Qing temple to Guan Yu in the old river quarter, built by merchants and carved far beyond what a county temple usually got: stone columns with dragons cut in the round. Half an hour.
A large reservoir on the Lianshui with wooded islands and a lot of shoreline, used mainly for fishing and weekend boats. It sits between Xiangtan and Loudi and makes an easy stop between the two.
On the Map
Approximate locations of the attractions above, across Xiangtan.
Eat
Belly pork browned in caramelised sugar and braised with dried chilli and no soy, which is why it comes out red-brown rather than black. It is a Xiangtan home dish that took the family name and travelled.
Lotus seeds from the ponds here, sold fresh in summer and dried the rest of the year. Fresh ones are eaten raw out of the green head; dried ones go into soups and sweet stews. Remove the green germ, which is bitter.
Thin sticks of glutinous rice flour, sugar and mint, cut to look like lamp wicks, which is where the name comes from. They are stiff, sweet and faintly cooling, and every Xiangtan shop sells a box.
Xiangtan is the centre of the mainland betel-nut trade and visitors will be offered one. Be aware before visitors accept: the World Health Organization's cancer agency classifies areca nut as a group 1 carcinogen, linked to oral cancer.
Do
Entry is free but timed and arranged online, passports are checked at security, and the site runs on tour-group rhythm from mid-morning. Initial slot of the day is the sole quiet one.
Qi Baishi's shrimp are painted with a loaded brush in single strokes and no correction, so the interest is in how few marks each animal takes. Stand close enough to count them.
In June and July the ponds are cut and the green heads are sold by the armful at the roadside. Visitors break them open and eat the seeds raw. It is the one thing here that just works in season.
Troupes play at temple fairs and around the lunar new year rather than on a schedule, so ask at the culture centre in Yuhu District. The figures are paper, so the colours are stronger than northern shadow theatre.
When
Mild and green, with rape blossom in March and the least crowding at Shaoshan before the summer holidays. The ideal all-round window.
Hot, humid and the peak at Shaoshan, but also lotus season, when the ponds flower and the fresh seeds appear. Start everything early.
Cool and dry, comfortable for the village houses and the academy, and the quietest stretch at the memorial sites.
Cold and damp with little sun. Shadow-puppet troupes play around the lunar new year, which is the one thing winter does better.
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Xiangtan is in Hunan, in Central China.
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