During the May Day Holiday, Changsha Became the Nation's Top 'Trending' City—Why Were All the Food Streets Packed?

During the May Day holiday, Changsha's bustling commercial districts were crowded with people, tourists from all over the country poured in, and the subway passenger flow intensity ranked second nationwide. Over this May Day long holiday, Changsha truly became the nation's top 'trending' city, with long queues of foodies outside every restaurant, and many dining establishments set new sales records.

I never expected Changsha's tourism to be so explosive during May Day. My family and I also ended up boarding a high-speed train from Guangzhou to Changsha for a short three-night, two-day trip. We originally wanted to avoid cities with heavy crowds during the May Day peak, but we never imagined that Changsha's short May Day holiday would suddenly become so popular.

When you come to Changsha, you must visit these streets and alleyways to eat and stroll.

With so many cities in China, each offering a dazzling array of snacks, why is Changsha hailed as the 'Capital of Food'?

Hunan is a region that loves spicy food; everything they eat has to have some heat—truly no spice, no joy! The girls of our great Hunan are called Xiang girls, also known as spicy girls, meaning they can handle extreme spiciness. This shows just how much Hunan loves 'spice' and 'bold flavors.'

Taiping Old Street, Denglong Street, and Pozi Street are historic and full of delicious food.

Changsha has a great variety of snacks, and tourists from other places come here specifically to taste its specialties.

Taiping Street in Changsha is not only the most intact street preserving the original alleyway layout of the ancient city, with classical visual impacts from iconic ancient architectural elements like stone archways, cobblestone roads, fireproof walls, and ancient stages, but it also offers many tasty snacks inside.

During May Day, this place was incredibly crowded!

On Pozi Street, the aroma of various snack shops wafts through the air.

Changsha's Pozi Street, with a history of over 1,200 years, is a genuine thousand-year-old street and a representative of Huxiang culture. After the 'Wenxi Fire,' Pozi Street was completely destroyed and gradually fell into obscurity.

Pozi Street, along with Shanghai's City God Temple, Nanjing's Confucius Temple, and Suzhou's Guanqian Street, is regarded as one of China's four most famous snack streets. Huxiang's culinary culture has a long history, and Pozi Street, as a gathering place for Changsha's food and snacks, fully reflects Changsha's local characteristics and regional dining styles.

The main specialties on Pozi Street include: sour plum soup, Si Aijie stinky tofu, sugar oil baba, glutinous rice zongzi, Xiangbin spring rolls, dragon fat pig blood, mung bean paste, noodle soup, rice noodles, dry-fried chicken oil eight-treasure rice, wontons, shredded radish cakes, potato baba, fried dough sticks, snails, flavor crawfish, braised pig trotters, spicy hot pot, and more.

Spicy and fragrant Hunan cuisine.

When visiting Changsha, the main experience is, of course, authentic Hunan flavor. Dishes like chopped pepper fish head, chili stir-fried pork, and Mao's braised pork have spread beyond Dongting Lake and become famous across Greater China. There are also many delicious foods unique to Hunan—don't miss them if you come.

Once we arrived in Changsha, our first choice was a trending restaurant. There were already hundreds of people waiting in line outside—it was so popular. We waited a full hour and a half before we could get in to eat.

Changsha stinky tofu smells foul but tastes delicious.

Stinky tofu is also very famous in Changsha. Although it smells awful, it tastes especially good, especially when you take the first bite and the seasoned juice bursts in your mouth—it's incredibly tasty. There are various brands of stinky tofu in Changsha, and each place's method is slightly different; it's worth trying.

Changsha is the capital of Hunan Province, and this gives you a glimpse. But Changsha is hailed as the 'Capital of Food' not just for its bold flavors. Many shop fronts also have long lines, with people holding a bowl in hand and eating while walking; pedestrians passing by cover their noses, but the eaters enjoy it immensely.

When in Changsha, you must have a bowl of rice noodles.

A friend told me that in Changsha, you must not forget to try the most famous rice noodles at Bus Village Rice Noodles. I didn't expect that when I planned to take a taxi there in the morning, the taxi driver told me that this noodle shop requires a half-hour wait to eat. If I needed to wait half an hour for a bowl of rice noodles, I wasn't interested. Later, the driver recommended another place, 'Taste Hunan Food' rice noodle shop. The flavor was also good, and the noodles were very cheap—14 yuan per bowl, excellent value. The taste was very rich, and you could add toppings freely; I added a lot of my favorite pickled beans. The soup was rich but not greasy at all—I call it soulful soup.

A new type of drink in Changsha, 'Sexy Tea,' attracted large crowds of young people queuing to buy.

This milk tea shop, which combines aesthetics, culture, service, and taste, has exploded across Changsha. Sexy Tea is present on every lively street in Changsha. Many foodies from other cities come specifically for it. The most classic milk tea is 'Youlan Latte,' with super tasty nut cream. There is also a sibling shop called Zhihu Tea, which offers top-notch cheese cream caps, and the way to drink it is also unique.

For a cup of milk tea, people are willing to queue for over half an hour—I was stunned. On Toutiao, I asked netizens about this puzzle, and got over 500 replies with various answers. Through this little cup of milk tea inquiry, it also reflects the values of different groups of people.

Is this short three-night, two-day trip to Changsha during the May Day break coming to an end so quickly? I felt a bit reluctant and nostalgic. Though the time was short, there was much worth remembering. Guangzhou to Changsha by high-speed rail takes only two and a half hours. I'll come often in the future.